CONFERENCE PROGRAMME & INFORMATION THE POLITICS OF ARMED STRUGGLE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

In recent years, southern Africa’s armed struggle has been the subject of intense discussions both at the scholarly level and in public discourse, with debates around the relative ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of armed tactics and the transition from non-violent to armed resistance being among the most controversial. Yet these debates need to be grounded in a deeper understanding of the historical context and of the changing internal and international conditions within which the armed struggle emerged and developed over the years. Moreover, with few exceptions, the experiences of former military cadres, particularly at rank and file level, remain untold and undocumented. The conference seeks to open up new areas of research and new conversations on this topic which, in spite of its historical significance as a key strategy of the liberation movements over many years and carrying a lot of weight in the lives of thousands of people, has remained difficult to document and understand, not least because of its sensitive nature and associated secrecy. One of the conference’s key aims is to provide a space for recounting narratives of the armed struggle from the perspective of its protagonists. A second aim is to make an intellectual contribution to the historiography of the liberation struggle by generating original research and developing new questions and ideas on the armed struggle. Thirdly, the conference aims to foreground the regional dimension of the armed struggle in southern Africa and the reciprocal influence of struggles in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and . This conference on the history and politics of the armed struggle in southern Africa is hosted by the Wits History Workshop, the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) and South African History Online (SAHO) . The conference is being funded by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) with the support of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS).

1 Wednesday 23rd November Thursday 24th November

Registration Welcome and Opening Remarks Time: 15:00 – 17:30 Time: 08:30 – 9:00 Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building

The exhibition Recollecting‘ Samora - Thirty Years On’ ConferenceProgramme on display in the foyer of the nearby William Cullen Library First Keynote Address: ‘Storied Wars: Personal Narratives and (curated by Gabriele Mohale and Ruth Muller) Liberation Struggle Histories’ Time: 9:00 – 9:45 Posters of the Armed Struggle in Southern Africa Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium on display in the Moffat Building foyer (curated by Judy Seidman) Speaker: Jocelyn Alexander

Opening Public Dialogue: ‘The Armed Struggle: Was it Worth It?’ Second Keynote Address: ‘The Hero & the New Intellectual: Writing and the Armed Struggle’ Time: 18:00 – 19:30 Time: 9:45 – 10:45 Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium Speakers: Speaker: Mandla Langa Dumiso Dabengwa Comments & questions Terry Bell Ayanda Dlodlo Chair: Adam Habib Tea & Coffee Time: 10:45 – 11:15 Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building Conference Programme Programme Conference

2 3 PARALLEL PANELS 1-2-3-4 Panel 4: Military Veterans Post-Liberation Time: 11:15 – 12:45 Venue: John Moffat Extension Building Room 101 Panellists: Panel 1: Strategic and Tactical Turning Points in South Africa’s 1. Frederick Sadomba: ‘Psycho-social strains of Transition for Liberation Struggle (Part 1) Zimbabwean Excombatants and its Effect on Peace-building and Post-conflict Recovery, 1980-2016’ Venue: John Moffat Building Room A2 2. Zandisiwe Radebe: ‘Negotiated out of existence: Fanonian Panellists:

mediations on APLA and AZANLA combatants’ ConferenceProgramme 1. Z. Pallo Jordan and Mac Maharaj: ‘South Africa and the Turn to 3. Fumani Mthembi: ‘From Commissar to Obscurity: The Role of Armed Resistance’ Disorganisation in The Struggle for Liberation’ 2. Simon Stevens: ‘The “Turn to Armed Struggle” and the “Turn to Chair: Judy Seidman Sanctions”, 1960-1969’ 3. Dale McKinley: ‘: A Critical analysis of the armed struggle of the African National Congress’ Chair: Tshepo Moloi Lunch Time: 12:45 – 13:45 Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building Panel 2: Film Screening ‘Cuba-South Africa: After the Battle’ Lunch time Film Screening (Dir: Estella Bravo, 1991, 58 minutes) Dieci giorni con i guerriglieri del Mozambico libero (Ten Days with the Guerrillas in Mozambique’s Liberated Areas) Introduced by: Robert van Niekerk (Dir: Franco Cigarini, Italy, 1972, 23 min). Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Introduced by: Chiara Torcianti Chair: TBC Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building

Panel 3: Patriotic History and the Politics of Memory in Namibia and Zimbabwe Venue: John Moffat Extension Building Room 001 Panellists: 1. Joseph Mujere, Joost Fontein and Munyaradzi Elton Sagiya: ‘”Those who are not known, should be known by the country”: Patriotic history, liberation heritage and the politics of recognition in Gutu district, southern Zimbabwe’ Conference Programme Programme Conference 2. Henning Melber: ‘Armed Liberation Struggle and the Post- colonial narrative in Namibia’ 3. Samukele Hadebe: ‘Challenges in Memorializing ZPRA Legacy’ Chair: Jocelyn Alexander

4 5 PARALLEL PANELS 5-6-7-8-9 Panel 7: The Media and Representations of the Armed Struggle Time: 13:45 – 15:15 Venue: John Moffat Extension Building Room 001 Panellists: Panel 5: Strategic and Tactical Turning Points in South Africa’s 1. Ishmael Makanyisa: ‘The role of the media during the liberation Liberation Struggle (part 2) struggle in Zimbabwe from 1966 – 1979’ 2. Naitsikile Iizyenda: ‘Defending South West: Paratus and the Venue: John Moffat Building Room A2 ConferenceProgramme Power of Persuasion’ Panellists: 3. Garrett Eriksen:‘Stories, Shadows and Dust: A filmmaker’s 1. Patrick Mangashe: ‘The armed struggle, the underground and experience documenting the stories of SADF veterans of the mass mobilisation in South Africa’s border region between 1986- South African Border War’ 1990 through the experiences of MK cadres’ Chair: Omar Badsha 2. Nkululeko Mabandla: ‘The 1980s student movement and South Africa’s armed struggle’ 3. Mike Mzimasi Hala: ‘The Military and the Political in MK Actions in the 1980s: A View from a Senior MK Combatant (Special Ops)’ Panel 8: The Armed Struggle in Poems Chair: Mandla Langa Venue: John Moffat Extension Building Room 101 Panellists: 1. Helen Douglas: ‘Need I Remind Anyone Again?’ Panel 6: Biography and Histories of the Armed Struggle 2. Benny Moyo Venue: John Moffat Building Rooms A3 3. Makhosazana Xaba: ‘Journeying’ Panellists: Chair: Barry Gilder 1. Tshepo Moloi: ‘”You have to think of tomato sauce”: The life and times of Thembuyise Simon Mndawe, an MK cadre’ 2. Christian Williams: Exile‘ Biography and Un-National History: The Panel 9: Film Screening: Story of Kaufilwa Nepelilo’ Action Kommandant 3. Hugh Macmillan: ‘Jack Simons and armed struggle’ (Dir. Nadine Cloete, South Africa, 2016, 90 minutes) 4. Miguel Junior: ‘Agostinho Neto and the armed struggle in Southern Africa (Angola, 1961-1979) Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Chair: Alex Lichtenstein

Tea & Coffee Time: 15:15 – 15:45 Conference Programme Programme Conference Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building

6 7 PARALLEL PANELS: Panels 10-11-12-13 Panel 13: Mapping the Armed Struggle Time: 15:45 – 17:15 Venue: A3 John Moffat Extension Building Room 101 Panellists: Panel 10: Gendering the Armed Struggle 1. Godfrey Maringira: ‘”Underground Operations”: Azania People’s Venue: John Moffat Building Room A2 Liberation Army guerrillas in South Africa’ Panellists: 2. Jephias Andrew Dzimbanhete: ‘Sources about guerrilla activities in the Rhodesian countryside during Zimbabwe’s armed struggle: 1. Jefferson Ndimande: ‘The Subaltern Speaks: ZPRA Women the case of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army ConferenceProgramme Combatants and the Liberation War in Zimbabawe’ (ZANLA) field reports’ 2. Jonna Katto:‘Beautiful Mozambique Haptics of belonging in the 3. Asa Mudzimu: ‘Convivialities, violence and deprivation: War and life narratives of female war veterans’ everyday life in guerrilla camps in Mozambique and ’ 3. Bheki R Mngomezulu: ‘Being the shadow of men: Women’s role Chair: Noor Nieftagodien in the armed struggle in Southern Africa with specific reference to Ingwavuma’ Chair: Anne Heffernan Public Dialogue: ‘Fighting on Two Fronts: Experience and Practice of Gender Panel 11: Counterinsurgency and Ethnic Politics within the Armed Struggle Struggle within the Armed Struggle in Southern Africa’ Time: 18:00 – 19:30 Venue: John Moffat Building Room A3 Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Panellists: Speakers: 1. Garth Benneyworth: ‘Bechuanaland’s aerial pipeline: State surveillance, repression and counter-insurgency, 1960-1964’ Thenjiwe Mthintso 2. Lennart Bolliger: ‘The Post-War Life Trajectories and Historical Raymond Suttner Narratives of Black Namibian and Angolan ExKoevoet and 32 Makhosazana Xaba Battalion Members’ Chair: Judy Seidman 3. John Mwangi Githigaro: ‘(Re)visiting the Impact of Ethnic Divisions in the Armed Struggle in Zimbabwe’ 4. Calisto Samuel Remedios Baquete: ‘Genesis of Movements of opposition to Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO) in period from 1960 to 1994. The case of COREMO’ Chair: Saneze Tshayana

Conference Programme Programme Conference Panel 12: Film Screening The Routes to Freedom (Dir: Patrick Ricketts, South Africa, 60 mins) Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Introduced by: Anton Fisher & Patrick Ricketts Chair: Thula Simpson 8 9 Panel 16: Art and Music in the Armed Struggle Friday 25th November Venue: John Moffat Building Room Panellists: 1. Judy Seidman: ‘”National Liberation is necessarily an act of Roundtable Discussion 1: culture”: Visual art of the armed struggle in Southern Africa’ Socialist Internationalism and the Armed Struggle 2. Retha Langa: ‘An unruly counter-movement to the armed struggle: The revival of song as a weapon in contemporary South Africa’ Time: 8:30 – 10:00 ConferenceProgramme Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building 3. Paolo Israel: ‘Mueda Massacre: the Musical Archive’ Speakers: 4. Rithuli Orleyn: ‘Banished Struggle Memories Archived In Sound: Amagwijo As Discourse’ Piero Gleijeses Chair: Gwen Ansell Hans-Georg Schleicher Vladimir Shubin Chair: Dumiso Dabengwa Panel 17: Pan-African Solidarities and the Armed Struggle Venue: John Moffat Extension Building Room 101 Panellists: PARALLEL PANELS 14-15-16-17 1. Lazlo Passemiers: ‘The PAC and SWAPO’s participation in the Time: 10:00 – 11:30 “Congo alliance”, 1963-1964’ 2. Joel das Neves Tembe: ‘The anti- struggle and Panel 14: Fim Screening Mozambican solidarity’ Flame 3. Clinarete Munguambe: ‘Nationalism and Exile in an Age of Solidarity: Military co-operation between ZANU and FRELIMO in (Dir: Ingrid Sinclair, 1996, 90 min.) Mozambique (1975-1980)’ Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building 4. Matteo Grilli:‘Nkrumah’s role in the armed struggle in Southern Africa (1960-1966)’ Chair: Arianna Lissoni Panel 15: Debates over Non-violence and the Turn to Armed Struggle Venue: John Moffat Building Room A2 Tea & Coffee Panellists: Time: 11:30 – 12:00 1. Robert Skinner: ‘”Ignoring the temper of the people”: the Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building “failure” of non-violence in southern Africa, 1960-1962’

Conference Programme Programme Conference 2. Robert Vinson and Benedict Carton: ‘Albert Luthuli, , Martin Luther King Jr. and the Use of International Non- Violence in South Africa’s Turn to Armed Struggle’ 3. Conrad Chibango: ‘”Let my people go”: a liberation theology perspective of Zimbabwe’s armed struggle’ Chair: Phil Bonner

10 11 Roundtable Discussion 2: The Historiography of MK Panel 19: Documenting and Archiving the Armed Struggle Time: 12:00 – 13:00 Venue: John Moffat Building Room A3 Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Panellists: Speakers: 1. Gabriele Mohale: ‘What comes after the struggle?: From the Janet Cherry Archive of Ronnie Kasrils’ Thula Simpson 2. Sylvester Dombo: ‘Running out of time? An evaluation of “Capturing a Fading National Memory Project” in Zimbabwe’ Ronnie Kasrils ConferenceProgramme 3. Ali Khangela Hlongwane: ‘Re-engaging the Archive, History, Image Chair Stanley Manong and Legacy of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA) 1961- 1994 in contrast with the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’ Chair: Xolelwa Kashe-Katiya Lunch Time: 13:00 – 14:00 Panel 20: Film Screening: Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building Tribute to the Frontline States (Dir. Mandy Jacobson and Barbara King, South Africa, 2014, Lunch time Film Screening 53 min) Stories, Shadows and Dust: Experiences of the SADF Soldier in Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building the Southern African Bush War Introduced by: Shaka Sisulu (Dir. Garrett Eriksen, UK, 2012, 36 min) Introduced by: Garrett Eriksen Tea and Coffee Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Time: 15:30 – 16:00 Venue: Foyer – John Moffat Building

PARALLEL PANELS 18-19-20 Closing remarks Time: 14:00 – 15.30 Time: 16:00-17:00 Venue: Dorothy Susskind Auditorium, John Moffat Building Panel 18: Southern Africa’s Armed Struggle and the World Venue: John Moffat Building Room A2 Panellists: 1. Kenneth Tafira:‘Armed Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa and the Global Geo-Political Order: South Africa, Zimbabwe,

Conference Programme Programme Conference Mozambique and Angola’ 2. Benny Moyo: ‘Socialist internationalism and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) – a game-changer’ 3. Chiara Torcianti:‘The struggle continues: Italian reception of the liberation movement in Mozambique’ Chair: Ralph Mathekga 12 13 Music and Dance Performance by Massacre de Mueda: Makumbusho (Recollections) Public dialogues Time: 17:00 – 18:00 & Keynote addresses Venue: The Atrium, South West Engineering Building

Makumbusho explores the effects of slavery on the cultural identity of oppressed peoples. Through dance, song and theatre, the performers voice the disavowal of the slavery system that was once imposed on them. The show blends traditional and contemporary dance, presenting some of the cultural values that have been passed down from generation to generation, highlighting the importance of preserving these for the generations to come.

Artistic Director:Moisés Bilali Group Director: Atanásio Nhussi Stage names, performers names and roles: ‘Nangwona-’ - Atanásio Nhussi -Percussionist: singer, main dancer and choreographer ‘Namakwakwa’ - Valério Mwale; Percussionist, main singer, choir and choreographer ‘Ngwidile’ - Maurício Nangonga: Dancer, percussionist, singer and choreographer ‘Ntumissana’ - Constantino Ntumissana: Dancer, singer and choir OPENING PUBLIC DIALOGUE:

(The performance is supported by an ANT Funding Grant from Pro ‘The Armed Struggle: Was it Worth It?’ Helvetia Johannesburg financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).) In December 2016 (next month) we commemorate 55 years since the turn to armed struggle in South Africa with the formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Indeed, in the latter half of the Twentieth Century, armed struggle became a key element of the struggles against colonialism and apartheid in southern Africa – in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Conference Programme Programme Conference At the time, and against a recalcitrant enemy, armed struggle seemed the only alternative for many liberation movements in the region. Decades later, with liberation struggles behind us, and the lessons of the successes and failures of post-liberation governance in front of us, questions are now being asked in academia, political and civil society circles as to what role the armed struggle really played in liberation.

14 15 The title of this public dialogue session is deliberately provocative, with the aim land Zambezi Water Trust. When ZAPU exited She was recalled to go for specialized Military the Unity Accord was elected President and is Intelligence training in the Former Soviet of setting the scene for the conference as a whole which will explore in much due for retirement 2020. Union towards the end of 1984 Ayanda spent and varied detail a range of questions relating to the politics and history of the 3 months prior to her departure, in Angola armed struggle in southern Africa. This provocative title can be interpreted in doing news and the weekly Youth feature a number of ways. Given the challenges of post-liberation governance, was the broadcast for Radio Freedom armed struggle worth the sacrifices made or did brave people give their lives in Terry Bell vain? Alternatively, the question can be asked: to what extent did armed strug- Journalist, labour columnist, teacher, author, On her return from training in the Soviet gle contribute to the final outcome of liberation struggles in the region? broadcaster and life-long trade unionist. A Union at the end of 1985 she was deployed former 90-day detainee and political exile, he to the Natal Machinery under the Command In South Africa and other countries of the region, what was the relative weight was banned for 27 years. of Cde Musi Ngwenya aka Thami Zulu. She of armed struggle to other forms of struggle in determining the outcomes? worked for some time with Cde Johnny Left South Africa illegally in 1965 and worked Would it have been possible to achieve the same or similar results without Sexwale setting up infiltration routes for both briefly as a journalist in Zambia before being machinery and personnel. She was later armed struggle? What were the differences in the forms of armed struggle in granted political asylum in Britain “for his own promoted in rank to lead the Natal Machin- different countries in the region and how did these forms impact on the success personal safety” (Kenneth Kaunda). ery’s Intelligence Unit until her arrest and or otherwise of armed struggle? In the final analysis, to what extent did other, deportation to Lusaka at the end of 1988. external factors, play the deciding role in the outcomes of the struggles in the Returned, with wife, Barbara, to Zambia 1968, region? forced to leave 1970/1 during Vorster/Kaun- In January 1990 she gave birth to her only da d’etente period. Took up job offer in New child Thabang and had to leave him in June Other questions may also arise. To what extent have post-liberation societies -giv Zealand with instructions to “help start an that year to pursue studies in Shipping and en due credit to those who participated in and sacrificed in the armed struggle, anti-apartheid movement”. Transport Management in London. both in the sense of acknowledging their role and in caring for veterans? To what In 1979 asked by OR Tambo to start the pri- In 1992 Ayanda returned to South Africa and extent do current critiques of the relevance of armed struggle (and even the role mary division of ANC school, Somafco. With worked in the logistics sector for Transnet, of exiled liberation movements more generally) reflect the benefit of objective Barbara, wrote first ANC primary curriculum. rising through the ranks in Transnet and hindsight or a more political reflection of disillusion with (or plain opposition to) Left 1982 because of serious deviations by gaining further experience in Port operations liberation movements in government? leadership structures from ANC policies. and Management in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Upon her In London, established and co-ordinated return she worked foy FastFleet a subsidiary “Friends of Moses Mayekiso” the largest trade of Telkom.. union-based anti-apartheid campaign centred She joined the Deaprtment of Safety and Speakers: Opening Public Dialogue on the “Alex 5”. Returned to South Africa Security in 2000. In 2005/6 she helped 1991. establish the investigative support Unit Dumiso Dabengwa Dr Dabengwa led the ZPRA delegation at Lan- of the Directorate for Special Operations caster House and in the Ceasefire. After Inde- was born in Ntabazinduna, Matebeleland, on Ayanda Dlodlo (Scorpions). 6 December 1939. pendence represented ZPRA in the Zimbabwe JMC, with Walls and Mujuru then retired from was born in Soweto and studied in Swaziland. She was elected as Secretary General of Military Service(1981). In 1982, he was charged uMkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans He was a temporary teacher for one year She joined Umkhonto weSizwe in 1981 and with Treason, was acquitted, but still was incar- Association 2006 and was involved in at Cyrene Mission worked as a Clerk at the did her Basic Military Training in Caculama in cerated at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison establishlishing the Military Veteran Bulawayo City Council in 1958-59, then for Angola in 1982. She went on to do specialized until release due to Unity Accord agreement. Department Barclays. He joined the NDP and became its training in Military Combat Work in Caxito in He became Nkulumane MP(1990-2000), Depu- Youth-League Secretary at 20. After the NDP preparation for deployment to South Africa and She became a member of Parliament ty Home-Affairs Minister(1990-92), substantive was banned, he was arrested and impris- the Fronline States in 2009 and was appointed President oned; he, was then elected to the same post Minister(1992-2000), Bulawayo Provincial Zuma’s Parliamentary Counsellor until her in the when ZAPU formed. He was one of the Chairperson, Zanu-PF Central Committee(1989) Ayanda worked in various capacities and in appointment as Deputy Minister for Public first to go for military training in the USSR and Politburo(1994) and was instrumental in different countries during her time in exile. Service and Administration a position she (specialising in Intelligence). In Zambia, at forming the Mafela Trust(1990) to properly holds to date. document ZAPU/ZPRA’s history, becoming its ZAPU-HQ, he became ZPRA’s Military Intel- She was part of the Transvaal Urban Machinery She is a member of the ANC National ligence Head.He planned and executed with Chairman, now Trustee. Since 1991, he is also Machinery in Swaziland under the command a Trustee of Edward Ndlovu Memorial Trust, Executive Committee and heads its sub S.A.’s Joe Modise and Chris Hani strategies of General Nyanda In 1984 she spent some committee on Legislature and Government. and joint MK-ZPRA deployments against the Matebeleland Development Foundation, Mater time in the Transvaal Rural Machinery based in Rhodesian and SA regimes. Dei Hospital, Masca and Chairman Matebele- Zimbabwe 16 17 2ND KEYNOTE ADDRESS: ‘The Hero & the New Intellectual: ST 1 KEYNOTE Writing & the Armed Struggle’ ADDRESS: Given the over-arching influence of the publishing industry on the determination of the choices of the narratives that see the light of day – and the gate-keeping role of academia – texts, actual or fictitional about the armed struggle, end up gathering ‘Storied Wars: dust, unseen and unread by the broader public. A bigger disincentive for aspirant Personal Narratives writers, though, is the lack of confidence that what they wish to write or reflect is inconsequential in the bigger scheme of things. My talk is about mining the archive & Liberation to tell stories of the liberation struggle, writing in the midst of combat, looking at the examples of other writers (and writers organisations) in Angola, Mozambique, Cuba Struggle Histories’ and, of course, South Africa. What can we do to re-legitimise what has been dismissed as “anti-apartheid” writing and thus having no relevance, in the minds of the arbiters There are many different ways to tell stories about war, each with its particular of taste, in a modern, democratic country fixated on fantasy and amnesia? purposes, qualities and limitations. This paper explores some inventive approaches to telling war stories through fiction, song and film, arguing that these mediums are able Speaker: to bring the everyday and intimate into the same frame as the grand machinations of liberation movements, and so offer views on war that unsettle dominant stories Mandla Langa 1996., his third novel, The Memory of Stones, in 2000, The Lost Colours of the Chameleon in productive ways. I use the insights of this work as a spur to explore the attributes was born in Stanger, (KwaDukuza), in KwaZulu. in 2008 and The Texture of Shadows in 2014. He is one of nine children; his brother Bheki of soldiers’ own accounts of war. These stories are partial in two senses: they offer His creative and critical writings appear in Langa was SA’s Ambassador to Russia, his an individual’s always incomplete picture of a struggle that was geographically vast, numerous publications and collections. organizationally complex, and often bewildering, and they inevitably carry political brother , was chief justice for the freight, both in the midst of and in the aftermath of war. Drawing on largely oral Constitutional Court of South Africa, and his Langa served on the boards of Business accounts from ZAPU’s armed struggle, I seek to demonstrate how these stories are brother Ben Langa was a UDF activist, who and Arts South Africa, the Institute for the was killed in 1984. Advancement of Journalism, the Rhodes able nonetheless to offer valuable views on the shifting meanings of war, past and University School for Economic Journalism Langa studied at Fort Hare University where present. This is in part because oral sources of this kind are not fixed products of and MultiChoice South Africa Holdings. He has he was actively involved in the South African the past, but part of an ongoing conversation: it is possible to pose new questions, served as a trustee for Nation’s Trust, the Read Students’ Organisation. He graduated with a pursue murky topics, and revisit the political valence of these stories over time. This Educational Trust and the South African Screen BA in English and philosophy in 1972. process expands the scope of what we might call a recoverable past and, much as in Writers’ Laboratory. He worked as CEO of the the varied war stories I began with, it provides a powerful counter to dominant tales. In 1976, he was arrested and imprisoned for Independent Communication Authority of 101 days; on release he went into exile in South Africa, executive vice president of South . Langa continued writing poetry as Africa’s PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Essayists, Speaker: well as political activities. Editors and Novelists) and chairman of the He joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, trained in judging panel for the ‘Twenty in 20’ short story Jocelyn Alexander Angola from 1980 to 1982. He then worked project. is Professor of Commonwealth Studies at the University of Oxford. Her research in in Mozambique, Zambia, Hungary and Langa’s awards include the 1991 Arts Council concerns the social and political history of southern Africa. Recent work has the United Kingdom, in various ANC posts, of Great Britain’s bursary for creative writing focused on the transnational histories of southern African liberation movements, a engaging in cultural activities, studying and (the first South African to receive this ): the topic on which she is currently editing a special issue of the Journal of Southern Af- practicing journalism 2003 convention of the Pan African Writers’ rican Studies (with JoAnn McGregor and Miles Tendi). She is in addition completing His short story ‘The Dead Men Who Lost Their Association featured an‘Evening with Mandla a monograph titled Prison Rules on the history of political imprisonment in Zim- Bones’, won Drum magazine’s 1980 short Langa’; and he was awarded the South African babwe from 1959 to 2009. She is the author of The Unsettled Land: The Politics of fiction contest. He published his first novel, government’s National Order of Ikhamanga Land and State-making in Zimbabwe, 1893-2003, and Violence and Memory: One Tenderness of Blood in 1987; A Rainbow in silver in 2007 for literary, journalistic and Hundred Years in the ‘Dark Forests’ of Matabeleland (with JoAnn McGregor and on the Paper Sky, in 1989, a short fiction cultural achievements. In 2009, he received Terence Ranger). She sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Southern African collection The Naked Song and Other Stories, in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Studies and the publications committee of the International Africa Institute. Book: Africa Region. 18 19 PUBLIC DIALOGUE/2: Speakers: Public Dialogue 2 Thenjiwe Mtintso He is the author of over 85 scholarly publica- ‘Fighting on Two Fronts: tions and numerous media articles. His books became a political activist in the early 70s, in include The ANC Underground, Recover- Experience and Practice of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) ing Democracy in South Africa, and Inside and Black Consciousness Movement (BCM); Apartheid’s Prison (to be republished next Gender Struggle within the which led to her expulsion from the University year in augmented form with a post-prison of Fort-Hare. She was detained several times, afterword) Armed Struggle in Southern tortured and banned for political activities in the 70s. His current research interests include Chief Africa’ Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, ethical lead- Mtintso went into exile in 1978, where she ership, gender and sexualities. joined the ANC and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). She underwent military training in Angola; and Suttner served over 11 years in prison or also trained at the Fé del Valle School in Cuba. house arrest for activities against apart- This public dialogue will explore how issues of gender and the emancipation She served as an MK commander in several heid. He was in the leadership of the ANC, of women were framed and addressed within Southern Africa’s liberation front-line posts, until MK was disbanded in SACP and UDF but, since 2006, has been in movements’ armed struggle. 1993. disagreement with the direction followed by the leadership. This discussion will begin by looking at the range of lived experiences and Mtintso returned to South Africa to become an circumstances, at theoretical perspectives, and at individual and collective ANC member of Parliament; she was appoint- strategies that were found to deal with these conditions. ed the first chairperson of the Commission of Gender Equality in 1997. This involves taking a long, hard look at how gender roles were defined and imposed and acted out – but also resisted and reconstructed -- within In 1998 she was elected as the Deputy Secre- Makhosazana Xaba the liberation movement’s armed struggle. Coming from societies where tary General of the ANC. She also served as patriarchy has been so deeply entrenched, Southern Africa’s liberation a member of the Central Committee of the is the author of two poetry collections: South African Communist Party (SACP). movements inevitably discovered patriarchy and gender oppression within these hands (2005) and, Tongues of their Mothers (2008). Her poems have been in its own ranks. These problems ranged from stereotyping, discrimination, She holds a BA and Master of Public develop- ment and Management degree from Wits. anthologized widely. She is the author of, harassment and gender violence; to the embedded structural distortions Running and other stories (2013), which recognised in the remark that “patriarchy is a far broader concept than sex, In 2007 she was appointed as South Africa’s won the SALA Nadine Gordimer Short Story sexism, and sexual violence”. Ambassador to Cuba; in 2010, South Africa’s Award in 2014. She is the co-editor of, Queer Ambassador to Italy; she is currently Ambassa- Africa: New and Collected Fiction (2013) But within their ranks, liberation armies also developed tools to fight dor to Rumania. oppression: awareness, theory, belief in and commitment to equality which won the 26th Lambda Literary Award for the anthology category in 2014. and humanity. So this dialogue will ask whether, and how, the political consciousness of national liberation struggles extended to issues of gender Raymond Suttner Khosi’s long term project is a biography of biography of Noni Jabavu. Her personal and oppression and emancipation. How do the lessons from the liberation struggle is an Emeritus Professor at the University apply to the intersection of race, gender, and class? political essays and biographical fragments of South Africa and a Part-time Professor at on the Noni project have been anthologized This is not a matter of historical interest only. This dialogue will conclude by . widely. She holds an MA in Writing (with asking: how has this critical aspect of our liberation history impacted our post- He initially taught law but later obtained a distinction) from Wits University. She is a independence society today? When the armed struggle for national liberation cross-disciplinary PhD in political studies, feminist activist at heart with many years of ended, did the “return to normal life” mean that cadres simply returned to sociology and history at the University of experience the NGO sector working in local patriarchal norms that were challenged during the armed struggle? What are the Witwatersrand. He has held academic and international organizations focused on the lessons learned about gender struggles in these years, and how can we positions at six South African Universities and women’s health and philanthropy. She was been a visiting fellow at Jadavpur University in an anti-apartheid activist and spent a few take these forward? Kolkata, India. years in exile. 20 21 Speakers: Roundtable discussion 1 Republic (GDR), assigned to various African Piero Gleijeses states and at the United Nations; including ROUNDTABLE is a professor of US foreign policy at the GDR Ambassador in Zimbabwe, and Head School of Advanced International Studies, of Mission in Namibia. He was head of the DISCUSSION 1: Johns Hopkins University. His publications Southern Africa Section and Deputy Head include: of Africa Department in the GDR Foreign Socialist Internationalism Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Ministry Pretoria and the Struggle for Southern Africa, Since 1990 he has researched Southern Africa & the Armed Struggle 1976-1991 (Chapel Hill, 2013), awarded the and German Africa policies with the Uni- 2014 Friedrich Katz Prize of the American versity of Hannover and the Association for Historical Association; Conflicting Missions: International Policies and International Law, Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976 Berlin; as visiting lecturer at German universi- Discussions will explore the impact of socialist (Chapel Hill, 2002), awarded the 2003 Robert ties and in various African states internationalism on the armed struggle in Southern Ferrell Prize of the Society of Historians of He has published books and other contribu- Africa with particular reference to the Cuban, Soviet American Foreign Relations; tions on GDR and German Africa policies and and GDR experiences. Issues include: Shattered Hope: The Guatemalan Revolution on Southern Africa in Germany, Zimbabwe, and the United States, 1944-1954 (Princeton, South Africa and Tanzania. 1991); Schleicher has worked as a consultant in • The motivations for Soviet, Cuban and East Germany and Southern Africa, Electoral German support for African liberation move- The Dominican Crisis: The 1965 Constitu- tionalist Revolt and American Intervention Observer in South Africa and Namibia, and ments from the 1960s - including material, (Baltimore, 1978; International adviser with the Independent financial, and political (both ideological and Electoral Commission in South Africa diplomatic) aid for anti-colonial/liberation rev. ed.: La Esperanza Desgarrada. La rebelión struggles; dominicana de 1965 y la invasión norteameri- cana, Havana, 2011). Vladimir Shubin • The role and impact of military assistance Both Visions of Freedom and Conflicting Mis- is Principal Research Fellow of the Institute from socialist countries (weaponry, military sions have been published in South Africa, by for African Studies of the Russian Academy of training, and active participation); Wits University Press and Galago respectively. Sciences. He has Doctor of Science (History) • The impact of socialist ideology on Africa’s They are based on twenty years of research in degree from the Moscow State University liberations struggles and especially on the the closed archives of Cuba (Gleijeses is the and Ph D (Honoris Causa) degree from the strategies and tactics of armed resistance, as only foreigner who has had access to these University of the Western Cape. archives), in the archives of South Africa , the well as the influence on the organisational United States and a score of other countries, Before joining the academia from the latest and ideological development of southern as well as interviews with about 300 protag- 1960s he was involved in the political and African liberation movements. onists from Cuba, the United States, Angola, practical support for the liberation struggle in Africa. • International socialist response to US/West South Africa, and other countries. support for counter-revolution in southern Gleijeses is going to be in South Africa for a He is an author of seven books including (in English) Social Democracy and Southern Af- Africa and the role of global geo-political conference on ‘The Politics of Armed Struggle in Southern Africa’. rica, ANC: a View from Moscow and The Hot struggles in southern African liberation strug- ‘Cold War’: the USSR in Southern Africa. gles. Apart from Soviet/Russian state awards - • The relationship between African liberation Hans-Georg Schleicher Order of Friendship, Order of Red Star, eight movements, post-liberation governments medals and “Combatant-internationalist” was born in 1943 in Germany. He completed and socialist countries. badge - he was bestowed with the South studies and postgraduate studies at Mar- African Order of Companions of O.R. Tambo tin-Luther-University Halle (MA and Ph D in • The role of socialist internationalism and (silver) for his “excellent contribution to the history). historical interventions in negotiations and struggle against Apartheid and Colonialism in post-independence settlements. Between 1969 and 1990 he served in the Southern Africa” . Diplomatic Service of the German Democratic 22 23 ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION 2: The Historiography of MK was published by Penguin in The roundtable aims to discuss the state of the historiography on Umkhonto weSizwe, 2016. He will be the editor of the largest of South Africa’s liberation movements’ armies. After the end of apartheid, a volume, The ANC and the the opening of new archives and a number of important oral history projects under the Liberation Struggle in South new democratic dispensation have enabled a new wave of research and writing on the Africa: Essential Writings, liberation struggle, in the form of both scholarly and personal accounts. This new body which will be published by of historical work has been characterised by a variety of ideological and methodological Routledge in 2017, and will approaches. Yet, the armed struggle has been difficult to document and penetrate as a feature chapters from the topic of research because of the scarcity of written records and the secrecy that is still leading contributors to the associated with it. All three roundtable speakers have made significant contributions historiography on the ANC to the historiography of MK as political insiders and scholars. We invite our roundtable and the struggle against speakers to address some of the following questions: apartheid. What, in your view, have been the most influential works on the history of MK from the time of its formation to the present? What are the key strategic phases in the Janet Cherry development of MK and the armed struggle according to this literature? What are is a South African human the key debates and arguments that this literature has produced, for example around rights activist and academic. strategy and tactics, the relative success and failure of MK and the influence of the She is currently Professor of Communist Party? What are the limits of these debates? What are their ideological Development Studies at the underpinnings? How do you see your own work in the context of these debates Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Ronnie Kasrils and what has been your contribution to the historiography? To what extent has University in Port Elizabeth. the scholarly literature on MK been able to capture the personal experiences ok She has a PhD in political was born Johannesburg 1938. He served in MK MK soldiers, particularly at rank and file level? What has been the significance of sociology from Rhodes Uni- from its inception in 1961 as member of the Natal autobiographical accounts and memoirs for the development of the historiography of versity. Regional Command and was involved in several of MK? Why do women’s voices and gender issues continue to be largely absent from the its sabotage operations before fleeing abroad in Her main areas of research are literature on MK and the armed struggle? How have difficult aspects of MK’s history, 1963. human rights, democratic par- particularly problems of malcontent and abuses that were perpetrated in the camps, ticipation, social and political He trained in Odessa, USSR in 1964, and later in been dealt with in the literature? To what extent is the current historiography of MK history, gender and sustain- Moscow in 1983 as MK’s Chief of Military Intelli- (and South Africa’s liberation struggle history more broadly) grounded in an African and able development. gence. international, rather than exclusively South African, context? What are the major gaps and limitations of the current scholarship? What new areas of research and analysis She is the author of Umkhonto He was based in Angola, 1977-80 as political are emerging and in which directions do you see the historiography developing in the we Sizwe: A Jacana pocket instructor and then Regional Commissar, and future? What new archives are emerging? Why does the armed struggle remain such a history (2011) and has contrib- served in all the Front Line states to 1990 when he charged and controversial topic of scholarly as well as public debate in the present? uted to the SADET volumes on returned to South Africa as part of Operation Vula. the South African liberation He was member of the ANC’s NEC from 1987- struggle, The Road to Democ- 2007; SACP Central Committee 1985-2007; Deputy Speakers: Roundtable discussion 2 racy in South Africa. Defence Minister (1994-99); Water & Forestry Minister (1999-2004); and Minister for Intelligence Thula Simpson She was a researcher for the SA Truth and Reconcilation Services (2004-8) when he resigned from govern- is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Historical and Heritage Commission and has published ment. Studies at the University of Pretoria. His research focuses on the a number of articles on South He has written numerous articles on MK; and two history of the ANC and the liberation struggle, and his work has African political and social books: “Armed and Dangerous”, and “The Unlikely featured in a number of journals and book chapters, culminating history, human rights and Secret Agent.” He holds numerous MK medals as in his bookUmkhonto we Sizwe: The ANC’s Armed Struggle, which develpoment. well as Soviet and Cuban decorations. 24 25 imposition of the State of Emergency and the mass detentions that created a climate in which by 1960-62 almost all organisations that could lay claim to be part of the struggle had concluded that the time had arrived for armed resistance to apartheid. Even elements in the Liberal Party became involved in sabotage activities. The paper draws together the range of groupings and organisations that entered this field in the early sixties, looks at the response of the State and the setbacks that these different efforts endured. It concludes at the point where international solidarity becomes a significant force against the repressive actions of the apartheid state and the continuation of the liberation struggle depended on the regrouping of forces of the ANC and MK in exile.

Simon Stevens: ‘The “turn to armed struggle” and the “turn to sanctions”, 1960-1969’ Scholarship on the “turn to armed struggle” in South Africa has flourished in the past decade. But the overwhelming focus on the adoption of violence as a central element of the strategy of the liberation movements has tended to obscure the other elements of that strategy. Those other elements include what can be called Paper Abstracts the “turn to sanctions,” which occurred simultaneously, and which established (presented here in the order that they appear in the conference campaigns for economic sanctions as one of the central forms of international programme) anti-apartheid solidarity action. Meanwhile, the literature on global anti-apartheid activism – generally written by scholars with quite different regional and thematic specialisations – rarely engages directly with the relationship of external anti- apartheid campaigns to the newly-launched armed struggle. Though often treated as discrete subjects, however, internal and international anti-apartheid activities were Panel 1: Strategic and Tactical Turning Points in South components of a single strategy, and can only be fully understood when studied as Africa’s Liberation Struggle (part 1) such. Drawn from the author’s current book project on the international history of anti-apartheid boycotts – which is based on research in more than seventy archives in six countries – this paper asks why leaders of the liberation movements came to Z. Pallo Jordan and Mac Maharaj: believe after 1960 that UN economic sanctions were both desirable and feasible. ‘South Africa and the turn to armed resistance’ And it analyses the shifting ideas within the movements regarding the specific role that sanctions could play in ending apartheid. This shows that, initially, sanctions This paper focusses on the circumstances under which various political organisations, were generally perceived as a means of causing sufficient economic hardship to bring particularly the ANC and the SACP, in South Africa turned to the armed struggle as a about a realignment in white politics, so that the National Party would be replaced in means to prosecuting the armed struggle in the early 1960s. It looks at the setbacks power by a more reformist white government that would be willing to negotiate with and shortcomings that this shift in strategy and tactics suffered and the challenges the opponents of apartheid. As the liberation movements turned to armed struggle, that arose at the time. however, the purpose of sanctions came to be understood quite differently. Sanctions From the perspective of the ANC and its allies its is important to appreciate that the were now seen as a means of facilitating the armed seizure of power by degrading armed struggle, if one may borrow the formulation by Clausewitz, is an extension of the state’s capacity to resist guerrilla warfare. the political struggle. The paper seeks to unravel some of the complex theoretical and empirical issues that Dale McKinley: were at play across the broad spectrum of organisations that regarded themselves as opposed to the apartheid system. ‘Umkhonto We Sizwe: A critical analysis of the armed struggle of the African Na- tional Congress’ We focus on the features of the mass struggles in the fifties and the repressive actions of the State culminating in the massacres at Sharpeville and Nyanga, the The early dominance of an ANC leadership comprised of the black petty bourgeoisie and traditional chiefs was tied to a strategy of non-violence and incorporation. 26 27 The result was that the ANC was unable (and/or unwilling) to respond to militant decade. However, ten years on from Ranger’s seminal article, there remains a lacuna struggles that were being waged against increasing racial and capitalist oppression. In of studies focusing on what purchase ZANU PF’s ‘patriotic history’ has had in specific turn, this failure created the conditions for a reactive turn to externalised and armed contexts and locales, and what kinds of alternative commemorations it sometimes struggle. afforded and enlivened. The tendency has been to critique the predominance of a few ZANU PF spokespeople and eccentric ideologues, rather than explore what By ruling out the possibilities and potentialities of long-term internal mass ‘patriotic history’, afforded other, long muted, localist agendas, or how it gained mobilisation and organisation and opting for armed propaganda (which, under the traction in specific material and imaginative contexts. Examining renewed efforts in objective conditions at the time, logically could only end up being externally based) the late 2000s by war veterans, relatives and survivors to monumentalize two war- to stimulate the same, the ANC and SACP situated the context and content of that time massacres sites in southern Zimbabwe, this paper explores the localized politics struggle outside the masses. of recognition with which ‘patriotic history’ was entangled, through which it gained A brief review and analysis of the ANC’s key documents and then organisational local saliency and traction. Based on interviews at Kamungoma and Hurodzavasikana (internal) as well as practical (external) activities related to the armed struggle from massacre sites, we explore the complexity and complicity of different ‘agencies’, the late 1960s until the early 1980s cumulatively shows that an armed propaganda actors and agendas involved to examine how ZANU PF’s renewed historiographical campaign could only realistically be used as a new pressure tactic for a larger project re-fuelled local efforts to remake communities and landscapes marked by accomodationist strategy that would increasingly rely on international conditions and violence and death, and gain recognition and recompense for losses and sacrifices actors for sustenance. made. Unlike elsewhere where war veteran-led exhumations reflect the failures of state commemoration what is striking at Kamungoma and Hurodzavasikana is As a result the internal mass struggles inside South Africa took place without much the relative absence of unhappy spirits or problematic human remains. Although organisational basis, direction or discipline, leading to much of their revolutionary hasty burials, landscapes unsettled by the mingling substances of bodies and soil potential being squandered. The key ingredients for a potentially insurrectionist are part of the story, at these sites the metonymy of past violence is more affective seizure of power in the South African context - strategically organised, armed and in the scarred bodies of survivors, in the failed futures of youth and kin lost, and of nationally consolidated organs of people’s power - were absent. recognition delayed or denied. Given the generally stressed state of the external organisation and the international pressures it now faced, a negotiated settlement was really the only route the ANC could take. It would now utilise mass and armed struggle for two specific purposes: Henning Melber: to act as pressure levers on the apartheid state in the lead up to future negotiations; ‘Armed Liberation Struggle and the Post-colonial narrative in Namibia’ and to ensure that the mass base was involved in the macro-strategy of a negotiated settlement.. Necessarily then, the possibilities of an armed, revolutionary, people’s The South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO of Namibia) had a unique ‘seizure of power’ with the potential to lay the foundation for a fundamental political status among anti-colonial movements. Fighting South Africa’s illegal occupation of and socio-economic transformation in South Africa, never saw the light of day. South West Africa/Namibia, dubbed by the United Nations as a “trust betrayed”, it resorted to armed struggle in the 1960s. SWAPO was subsequently recognized as “the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people” by a United Nations General Assembly resolution since the mid-1970s. The political culture in Namibia Panel 3: Patriotic History and the Politics of Memory in since Independence in 1990 is much characterized by the dominance of SWAPO as a Namibia and Zimbabwe former liberation movement and its official history cultivated. This paper summarizes the stages and relevance of the armed struggle and its relevance for the liberation of Namibia. It contrasts the heroic narrative of SWAPO’s claim to have liberated Joseph Mujere, Joost Fontein and Munyaradzi Elton Sagiya: Namibia through the barrel of the gun with some of the ‘hidden histories’ related to ‘”Those who are not known, should be known by the country”: Patriotic history, lib- the armed struggle and its realities, which do not have much visibility in the official eration heritage and the politics of recognition in Gutu district, southern Zimbabwe’ historiography. The politics surrounding the memorialisation of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle has The paper thereby seeks to contribute to a more nuanced assessment of the long been manifest in the highly elitist, exclusivist and partisan, and hierarchical country’s patriotic history as regards the role of the armed struggle and its relevance system of district, provincial and national heroes acres that forms the backbone of in the post-colonial political culture. state commemoration. After 2000, this was deeply intensified with a new narrowed nationalist historiography that Ranger labelled ‘patriotic history’ (2004), through which ZANU PF arrogated to itself the liberation credentials by which it continued to effectively marginalize any political opposition. ‘Patriotic history’ is a term that has found considerable purchase amongst Zimbabweanist scholars over the last

28 29 Samukele Hadebe: laid down their arms and anxiously waited for the Commonwealth supervised election. The much awaited , independence finally came in April 1980 after a bitter, ‘Challenges in Memorializing ZPRA Legacy’ widespread and protracted struggle. The struggle pitted the Zimbabwe African Inasmuch as history is the property of victors, so is memory. Zimbabwe People’s National Liberation Army (ZANLA) and the Zimbabwe African People’s Revolutionary Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) is one of those liberation forces who did not win political Army (ZIPRA) against the Rhodesian Security Forces (RSF). The two guerrilla forces power at the attainment of Independence in Zimbabwe. ZPRA’s war effort has largely faced a formidable enemy, which was strongly supported by apartheid South Africa, remained an untold story or where reference is made it is often a footnote. The very and the Portuguese in both manpower and equipment . 1980. By 1978, the RSF had sacrifice of ZPRA cadres and the role of their political wing Zimbabwe African People’s a battle-hardened army well suited to counter guerrilla warfare. In short, fighting Union (ZAPU) in the liberation of Zimbabwe has been subject of debate as claims by a ferocious war with the RSF who were well motivated and equipped and did not their competitors belittle their role. Zimbabwe’s official history says little and hence particularly observe laws of armed conflicts in prosecuting the war, left open and not much has been popularized on the contribution of ZPRA in the liberation struggle. invisible scars on the surviving ex-combatants. Thus bitter liberation war left a legacy that is powerful and uneasy as the “terror” and “violence” recreated in the Efforts to recollect ZPRA history faces a number of challenges, chief among being memories of the ex-combatants, which they are unable to forget some 36 years after the lack of war records that were confiscated after Independence and allegedly independence. destroyed. It could be literally said that the destruction of the war records and the official narrative that marginalizes ZPRA war effort were meant to erase the memory of ZPRA legacy. The post-Independence fortunes of liberation movements seem to Zandisiwe Radebe: ‘Negotiated out of existence: Fanonian mediations on APLA and be crucial in determining how the liberation war is remembered or not remembered. AZANLA combatants’ ZPRA history could be said to be anecdotal to the histories of other liberation forces who eventually won power. Fanon argues that, for the wretched of the earth, full humanity can only emerge through the effort to impose one’s existence onto another. That is to say, the This paper intends to interrogate the post-war situation in Zimbabwe as significant in resistance against the dehumanizing effects of colonial conquest leads to the dignity shaping the memory of ZPRA. Some post-war situations include the political turmoil of the spirit and thus at the center of armed struggle is the quest for ontological and armed clashes between ZPRA and its sister liberation force –Zimbabwe African resistance. In the context of South African therefore, where the Blacks are consigned National Liberation Army (ZANLA), the banditry in Matabeleland and Midlands, in what Fanon called the ‘zone of nonbeing’ the armed struggle as carried out by the Gukurahundi genocide, the Unity Accord and its aftermath. It shall be further “Poqo” which later became popularly known as the Azanian Peoples Liberation argued that perhaps it might not be possible for many ordinary Zimbabweans to ever Army (APLA) and later the through the Azanian National Liberation Army (AZANLA) appreciate ZPRA war effort since it is perceived largely from the lens of the post- the was the highest expression of Black subject formation. The ability to pick up liberation era. arms against the dehumanizing consequences of coloniality, is the first step towards decolonization; a process that seeks to give birth to new ways of Being, framed in new language qua new humanity. Fanon also observes decolonization cannot Panel 4: Military Veterans Post-Liberation be born from a process of negotiated settlement between the colonizer and the colonised. Decolonisation emerges from the re-appropriation of power and the land through armed struggle. Negotiated settlements that become known as the Frederick Sadomba: South African ‘miracle’ transition from apartheid to peaceful democracy marked ‘Psycho-social strains of Transition for Zimbabwean Excombatants and its Effect on the fragmentation of Black humanity. At the political level therefore, South Africa’s Peace-building and Post-conflict Recovery, 1980- 2016’ negotiated settlement culminated into the in the breaking of spirit of black resistance The work examines Zimbabwe’s struggle from the harmful effects of the war against as carried by APLA and AZANLA. This study interrogates the gains made by post- colonialism. Appropriate trauma interventions must be grounded in Zimbabwe’s apartheid South Africa, arguing that such gains are ontologically premised on Black complex history as well as incorporate Zimbabwe’s constructs of trauma and healing. erasure. Negotiated settlements in the context of the lived experiences of APLA and Zimbabwe’s long history dates back to the Portuguese, Germany expeditions and AZANLA combatants, culminated into dehumanization qua social death at the birth of the subsequent British colonisation in the 1890s. This work aims at surveying the ‘freedom’. extent to which traumatic events are a feature of life in Zimbabwe and aims to provide a comprehensive research that documents the pervasiveness of traumatic events on post conflict recovery and reconstruction. Before Zimbabwe gained her independence in 1980, thousands of Zimbabweans were members of armed formations and participants in the war of liberation. Former combatants numbering about 100 000, who had been operating under an environment of “kill or be killed,”

30 31 Fumani Mthembi: organisational networks capable of sustaining this work whilst avoiding the eye of ‘From Commissar to Obscurity: The Role of Disorganisation in The Struggle for apartheid’s political police. This clandestine network was to also therefore act as the Liberation’ bedrock on which the armed struggle would rest, its main support. The paper will also look at the extent to which the underground was able to deliver on these ‘key Popular perception would have us believe that liberation was won through performance areas’. organisation. Indeed, high levels of organisation were required to manage a globally dispersed set of people working towards a common goal. In addition, The South African political reality points to the masses mobilised independently of there is an increasing effort to place emphasis on the multiplicity of organisations the underground, seen in the rise of independent black trade unions, the UDF and that contributed to the struggle for liberation. However, the notion that those later the MDM coalition, is there any contradiction? organisations engaged in the struggle were inherently organised in their actions We will try to answer this question by looking at the example of the relationship or modes of operating is seldom explored. This paper seeks to deal directly with between the underground and mass mobilisation in the then Border Region during this question by unpacking the life of Fannie Pakhola. Fannie Phakola joined the 1985-1990, drawing on own personal experience and that of other MK cadres. movement for liberation as a teenager and soon found himself in exile. At the peak of his service to the movement, Phakola served as an MK commissar in Angola. However, upon the unbanning of the ANC, Phakola, along with many of his comrades, Nkululeko Mabandla: arrived home to no money, no leadership, no plan. They had fallen through the ‘The 1980s student movement and South Africa’s armed struggle’ cracks, along with their experience and training. This paper thus reveals a seldom articulated aspect of the struggle for liberation: organisational disorganisation. Resistance against the apartheid state violence was an uphill battle as asunarmed In particular, it explores this question and its implications in the context of post- youth were met with the brutal armed force of its repressive machinery, resulting apartheid South Africa. At the level of the individual, the paper asks whether good in death, arrests, or severe physical injuries and psychological harm. The killing of men and women were possibly lost to the transformation project as a function of eleven year-old Hector Peterson in the 1976 Soweto students’ uprising demonstrated disorganisation? By implication and perhaps more fundamentally, the paper asks apartheid’s brutality towards unarmed black children. Young people grew up almost whether the conditions surrounding the transition and the material form of ‘victory’ overnight. Following the criminalization of black organizations in the 1970s, and the led to a type of disorganisation that has been detrimental to the continuation of the deaths in detention of young black leaders. These included Mapetla Mohapi, Steve struggle for genuine liberation? Biko and Lungile Tabalaza (in 1976, 1977 and 1978 respectively), the apartheid regime had gloated that it had crushed the liberation movement and importantly, the will of the people to resist. This paper focuses on a group of comrades who cut their teeth in the 1980s Fort Hare University student boycotts and later became celebrated fighters and commanders Panel 5: Strategic and tactical turning points in South of MK. It traces their political consciousness in the hot fires of revolt, fanned, among Africa’s liberation struggle (part 2) others, by the widespread resistance to the so-called ‘independence’ of the Transkei and the militant worker’s struggles led by the South African Allied workers Union (SAAWU) in East London. Based on primary and secondary accounts, as well as Patrick Mangashe: personal knowledge, the paper maps the MK military trajectory of these friends, ‘The armed struggle, the underground and mass mobilisation in South Africa’s bor- including their involvement in one of the longest recorded shoot-outs between MK der region between 1986-1990 through the experiences of MK cadres’ and the apartheid forces inside South Africa. The ANC’s decision to embark on armed struggle came in the wake of similar armed The paper argues that apartheid state repression and propaganda failed to dissuade risings by colonised people in the post-war period, in the continent and elsewhere this youth from the path of revolution and in particular, from joining the armed in the world. Whilst acknowledging this background as a general reflection of struggle. It argues that the inter-sectional struggles of the 80s, involving students, the world’s political complexion of the time, this paper will look at South Africa’s workers and the community, gave the above students far-reaching political and particular conditions. It will look at the road the ANC travelled towards the actual organizational experience which enabled them to survive for long periods as decision to take up arms and examine whether the oppressed people in South Africa underground operatives and success in their armed engagements with apartheid were ready for this path. The Vietnamese experience (Five Fighting Factors) will be security forces. The contribution of the 80s youth to the South African struggle and, used as a ‘formula’ to determine if the ANC’s own armed struggle stood any chance in particular, the armed struggle remains hidden. This paper intends to address this of success at the beginning of the 1960s. gap in the literature. The purpose of the underground was to enable the ANC’s political message (its ideology) to take root and spread in the country, by creating clandestine 32 33 Mike Mzimasi Hala: Christian Williams: ‘The Military and the Political in MK Actions in the 1980s: A View from a Senior MK Exile Biography and Un-National History: The Story of Kaufilwa Nepelilo’ Combatant (Special Ops)’ In the history of Namibia’s liberation struggle, Kaufilwa Nepelilo’s story is largely Mike Mzimazi Hala was part of the 1976 generation who played a key role in unintelligible. As one of hundreds of contract laborers to leave Namibia during the energising and shaping the various sites of struggle for the national liberation of early 1960s in search of opportunities in postcolonial Tanzania, Nepelilo soon found South Africa. Profoundly effected by the conditions of severe repression in apartheid himself living at Kongwa, the site of the first guerrilla camp granted to SWAPO and South Africa Hala joined Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) after the June 16 student uprising. other liberation movements then supported by the OAU. A reluctant “freedom His formidable strategic capabilities in a military environment led rapidly to a position fighter” at best, Nepelilo’s account of life at Kongwa focuses not on preparations to of leadership in MK. As the first commander of MK Special Ops, he underwent liberate Namibia from colonialism but rather on escalating tensions between rank- military training the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Ghana and Cuba; in-file guerrillas and the camp command. Nepelilo’s story is not a classic “dissident” participated in key MK campaigns and operations; developed close relations with narrative either, however. In contrast to critical historiography, which introduces key figures in the ANC (notably Chris Hani) and developed an extensive knowledge of Kongwa in the context of SWAPO’s 1968 “Kongwa Crisis,” Nepelilo focuses on the political and social issues. inequities of camp daily life and recurring mundane conflicts over seven years. In his input Mike Hala will reflect on his experiences of military training and Moreover, he highlights events that he experienced personally and that have fallen combat; on the extent to which this training and combat prepared him; and how outside historiography altogether, including confrontations at Kongwa after 1968, the this experience related to the mass political anti-apartheid struggles within South imprisonment of Namibians in Tanzanian and Zambian jails during the early 1970s, Africa in the period of the 1980’s. He will, in other words, reflect on the relationship and the repatriation of Namibians as “Angolan refugees” during the early 1980s. between military combat work and mass political struggles, drawing from his Such oversights in the literature reflect the social geography of exile and how this personal experiences and observations as a senior combatant and leadership figure geography has been reproduced as national history in Namibia and other Southern within MK who was deployed within the country after receiving military training. He African countries. Nevertheless, Nepelilo’s story has not been “silenced.” Rather, will draw upon his personal experience to reflect on the concept of political cadreship it has been narrated often among friends who share stories of their exile pasts to within MK. support one another in postcolonial Namibia. Through engaging with these stories, this paper not only present the biography of one former exile/guerrilla, but also suggests how new histories of exile and armed struggles may be written. Panel 6: Biography and Histories of the Armed Struggle Hugh Macmillan: Tshepo Moloi: ‘ ‘Jack Simons and armed struggle’ ”You have to think of tomato sauce”: The life and times of Thembuyise Simon Mnd- This paper is based upon a forthcoming Jacana pocket biography of Jack Simons, awe, an MK cadre’ following up on one published on Chris Hani in 2014. Simons’s relationship with the ANC and MK in relation to armed struggle and political education is interesting On 8 March 1983 Mndawe was found dead in his cell at the Nelspruit Police Station. and complex. He opposed the turn to armed struggle in 1961, together with Moses He was 21 years old. In a brief period of two and half years, Mndawe helped to Kotane and Chief Albert Luthuli, allegedly under Quaker influence. With his wife Ray revive resistance politics in parts of the Lowveld region of the then eastern Transvaal he may have later accepted the establishment of MK. In Lusaka in 1969 he played a (today’s Mpumalanga province). In 1980, while employed by the KaNgwane major role as a mediator in defusing the crisis within MK following the failure of the homeland government, he joined uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK, Spear of the Nation). Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns, and the subsequent Hani Memorandum. It was that He recruited young people and sent them out to receive military and underground that time that he began his first course in political education for freedom fighters. training; was involved in the attack of the base of the South African Defence Force This had a significant influence on Hani’s political work in betweeen 1975 and in Tonga. More importantly, Mndawe played a vital role in re-invigorating the ANC’s 1982. Between 1977 and 1979 Simons spent about nine months teaching political politics in KaNgwane during the land deal. This paper will attempt to demonstrate education courses in the MK camps in Angola. His camp diaries are a major source of that when the members of MK recruited Mndawe they found him prepared; he was information on life in the camps at that time. He consistently argued that more time already conscious of the unconcealed discrimination and injustices prevailing in the should be devoted to political eduation and was always certain that the main role country, or at least in his immediate surroundings. His reserved nature, Christian of MK people inside South Africa would be political, not military. The emphasis on practices and employment made him an effective MK underground operative. the political was officially confirmed in 1979, following the visit of Tambo, Slovo and others to Vietnam, through the ‘Green Book’ on which Simons had some influence.

34 35 Miguel Junior: ‘ (ZANLA) side was largely meant to mobilise the masses through political education Agostinho Neto and the armed struggle in Southern Africa (Angola, 1961-1979) based on the Maoist literature. In order to thwart the efforts of ZANU (PF), the colonial regime in Southern Rhodesia made use of both the print and electronic The armed struggle in Southern Africa encompasses many particular and concrete media in her propaganda and the prime objective was to separate the civilians from situations. Therefore, the best way to understand the armed struggle in southern the freedom fighters often referred to as ‘terrorists’. On methodology, the research Africa is to consider each case in a timely manner and then incorporate them all. largely dwells on oral interviews from former Rhodesian soldiers and ex-guerrillas Thus, the focus here is the armed struggle in Angola. However, the armed struggle in whose majority are still alive today. Moreover, the focus group discussion also Angola can also be treated as a whole or separately from, since in this country there forms core of the methodology since the key informants on the liberation struggle were several movements of national liberation. But this text analysis focuses on the in Zimbabwe were the rural masses whose majority is still around. However, desk armed struggle led by the Popular Movement of Liberation of Angola (MPLA) under research and archival materials can also be used to authenticate the data gathered the leadership of Agostinho Neto. Soon we will examine, firstly, the armed struggle from oral interviews. Thus, the paper argues that the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe from 1961 to 1974 the MPLA and check the strategic thinking of Agostinho Neto over was not only waged by the freedom fighters, civilian population, business community the national liberation struggle in Angola. but equally important was the role of the media houses from both warring parties. But as the concept of the armed struggle is broad and embraces all forms of armed Therefore, popularising only the combatants and other stakeholders at the expense violence and to make use of the armed forces, then in the context of this approach of the media houses is a misrepresentation of historical facts. there is also space to go over the wars experienced by Angola in the pre- and post- independence periods. Since this was a consequence of the internal conflict and the intransigent position of Angola over the last bastions of colonialism and the apartheid Garrett Eriksen: system. So, secondly, we will address the fundamental aspects of these wars more ‘Stories, Shadows and Dust: A filmmaker’s experience documenting the stories of articulate with Agostinho Neto’s ideas concerning the struggle against colonialism SADF veterans of the South African Border War’ and apartheid in Southern Africa. South Africa has a relatively well-documented history, however the South African Bor- These are the two central points of communication on Agostinho Neto and the armed der War (1966 – 1989) is not as well explored as it could be. The experiential narra- struggle in Southern Africa. tives of the South African Defence Force (SADF) soldiers who fought in this war opens new avenues of understanding South Africa’s turbulent past. In documenting their experiences, what does the filmmaker learn about Constructed Memories and the act Panel 7: The Media and Representations of the Armed of storytelling itself? Struggle The purpose of this paper is to ask questions on subjective experience and Constructed Memory. How do the two relate and in what way do they relate to social Ishmael Makanyisa: media spheres and especially for those of the filmmaker and the film documentary? Specifically, how do these dimensions play out when the subjective experience ‘The role of the media during the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe from 1966 – pertains to the experiences of former SADF soldiers who fought in the Border War? 1979’ The experiential narratives contained in Constructed Memory can provide a different The paper seeks to explore the role of media within and without Rhodesia explorative avenue for historical events, that is to say, different views of the same war (Zimbabwe) during the liberation struggle from 1966 to 1979. Both print and in this case. The accompanying documentary Stories, Shadows and Dust (links below) electronic media played significant roles in the struggle for independence in showcases the experiences of five former SADF soldiers, allowing the audience to Southern Africa and Zimbabwe in particular. Propaganda by the media houses share in their experiences and draw their own conclusions. This paper then seeks to from both warring parties was on one hand used to impart the combatants with explore the concept of their memory constructions against the backdrop of emotional political education and moral support for them to remain resolute despite the contextual experience with specific focus on film media representations of the Border heavy casualties often suffered from either side in the battle front. On the other War. hand, the media from the White Rhodesian regime was meant to discourage the civilian population from rendering material, information and moral support to This work is designed to shed light on why not only telling stories is important, as the combatants hence, the masses were at the centre of the warring parties. The any Historian would tell you, but why their emotional context provides the human Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) used the Mozambican element; the element which allows one to connect with and understand; the element Broadcasting House through the voice of Zimbabwe tunnel whilst the Rhodesia which constructs the memory and relives the story, passing it on to the next group or National Army (RNA) used the Rhodesia Broadcasting House from within the country. generation until it becomes a part of the collected social consciousness of the story- The main thrust of the media from the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army telling world that is human society. 36 37 Ali Khangela Hlongwane: The deliberate decision to take up arms ¬against an oppressor, to put one’s life ‘Re-engaging the Archive, History, Image and Legacy of the Azanian People’s Lib- on the line for and with others, opens up a weird prophetic moment in which eration Army (APLA) 1961-1994 in contrast with the final report of the Truth and – however fleetingly and precariously – revolutionary freedom, equality and sol- Reconciliation Commission’ idarity are tangible, present and real. It opens another kind of identity, another view of politics, and another relationship to difference. (Love, in other words.) This paper reflects on the place, image and legacy of the military wing of the Pan One finds oneself pledged to the work of peace in the name of an emancipated Africanist Congress (PAC) initially known as Poqo and later renamed the Azanian future that remains to be fulfilled. People’s Liberation Army (APLA) in 1968. The paper investigates how APLA’s place, image and legacy is framed in the oral testimonies of PAC activists, in their Benny Moyo autobiographical writings, in the various publications of the PAC particularly Azania This is a collection of poems written about the armed struggle from a Z.I.P.R.A/Z.A.P.U Combat. In the conclusion it reflects on how this legacy and memory is framed and perspective. The poetry covers themes of peasant-worker struggles, Pan-African and reflected in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). International socialist support for the armed struggle. It celebrates the Z.A.P.U/A.N.C, By studying the Azania Combat and other relevant PAC publications and comparing Z.I.P.R.A MK alliance. them with the final TRC report the research engages with how the PAC and its ideologues have over the years fashioned the rationale behind the PAC’s adoption of armed struggle, their campaigns, armed operations and networks from 1961 until Makhosazana Xaba the suspension of armed struggle in 1993 and the advent of the TRC. The paper ‘Journeying’ will explore the archive, history and memory of the PAC’s armed struggle in four significant periods, the Poqo era; the advent of APLA in 1968; the post 1976 period; and the 1980s leading to the suspension of armed struggle. Panel 10: Gendering the Armed Struggle At its founding in 1959 the PAC like all other South African liberation movements did not set out to engage in armed struggle. APLA, The Azanian People’s Liberation Army, Submission to the TRC’s Armed Forces Hearings, This route was only taken Jefferson Ndimande: up subsequent to the banning, imprisonment and banishment of the organisation’s ‘The Subaltern Speaks: ZPRA Women Combatants and the Liberation War in Zim- leaders and members. The organisation’s route to armed struggle takes on an babawe’ approach described variously as insurrection, terrorist and over years evolves to embrace ideas of armed struggle or guerrilla warfare in ways that will be The paper explores women’s role as combatants in one of Zimbabwe’s liberation demonstrated in the body of the paper through the four periods identified as the armies- the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA). The paper employ a Poqo era; the advent of APLA in 1968; the post 1976 period; and the 1980s leading to gender lens as a theoretical backdrop as well as the life history approach to unpack the suspension of armed struggle. and explore the ZPRA’S women roles as combatants in Zimbabwe’s war of liberation. The paper utilises personal interviews with both ZPRA male and female combatants as well as written sources such as newspapers and archival material to explore the contribution of female combatants. Zimbabwe’s liberation war’s historiography is a Panel 8: The Armed Struggle in Poems contested narrative dominated by contradictions, tensions, silencing and othering. Space on the liberation war has been occupied and filled by the official ruling party Helen Douglas: narrative which appropriates the ruling ZANU PF party the major role in the liberation of the country. Further to that, the historiography of Zimbabwe’s liberation war has ‘Need I Remind Anyone Again?’ been androcentric, a narrative told from a masculine perspective where women are I will present a cycle of poems that explore armed struggle as “an act of love” (Kgosit- on the margins as the subaltern. The paper argues that women were not passive sile, “Red Song”), from a larger work-in-progress based on three years running a safe actors in the struggle, they were not just couriers, caregivers, nurses or combat wives house in Johannesburg for Operation Vula and 25 years trying to figure out what it all and mothers, instead they were active on the frontline, some rose up the ranks to meant. Here is a sketch of the ideas I am working with: become trainers and commanders fighting to liberate their country. The papers’ novelty is to broaden and widen the discourse on the war of liberation, moving it We take for granted, as given, that violent resistance to oppression can be just away from the dominant-male and masculine narrative, to one of inclusivity where and justifiable. Of course it is! And yet, all the political, military and philosophical the voice of women are heard and their experiences captured. It further highlights elements of armed struggle emerge from, and depend on, a prior ethical order that attitude towards accepting women as combatants were influenced by different of responsibility for the suffering of others. This is the mark of the human, and time epochs as well intensity of the struggle. the mark of love: that the life of another can be more important than one’s own. 38 39 Jonna Katto: overlooked role in the armed struggle. Using Ingwavuma as a case study, this paper demonstrates how women contributed to the armed struggle in Southern Africa. The ‘Beautiful Mozambique Haptics of belonging in the life narratives offemale war paper draws from an on-going project which is based on interviews conducted at veterans’ Ingwavuma between 2014 and 2015. Further interviews are currently being organised Between 1964 and 1974 thousands of young people in the rural areas of northern with different cadres who operated in the area and have since occupied senior Mozambique were mobilized by the guerrilla army FRELIMO to fight against positions in government. These interviews will be augmented by archival research to Portuguese colonial rule. Hundreds of girls and young women also became be carried out in Pietermaritzburg. The thrust of the argument in this paper is that engaged as guerrilla fighters in FRELIMO’s political-military campaign for national any history about the politics of the armed struggle which excludes women would independence. My paper concerns the relationship between FRELIMO nationalism be incomplete. As such, the paper proposes that instead of ‘infusing’ women in the and the female bodies that it sought to represent and mobilize. It is based on twelve histories of the armed struggle they should, in fact, be considered as key role-players months of multi-sited fieldwork among Ciyaawo-speaking communities in northern and as people who kept the struggle alive. Whether the focus is on South Africa as a Niassa between 2012 and 2014. country or Southern Africa as a region, the reality is that women made a significant Drawing on Arnold Berleant’s concept of aesthetics, this paper explores the shifting contribution to the armed struggle. Their role should be recognised, not out of senses of socio-spatial belonging in the life narratives of female ex-combatants. empathy, but because they deserve to be noted as such. Aesthetic engagement, as Berleant argues, involves our whole body and all our senses in the active perception of the environment. As the analysis shows, aesthetic sensibility is deeply intertwined with the ex-combatants’ experiences of socio-spatial Panel 11: Counterinsurgency and ethnic politics within the attachment/detachment. It influences the way belonging is negotiated at different armed struggle scales (e.g. nation, province, village, family, and globe). Negotiations on one scale effect negotiations on another and cannot be isolated from each other. In the female ex-combatants’ narratives, the ‘national’ often intertwines with the ‘personal’ in a Garth Benneyworth: violent relationship, evoking what can be called the haptics of the ‘bush’. Even today, ‘Bechuanaland’s aerial pipeline: State surveillance, repression and counter-insur- the paper argues, the aesthetics of the ‘bush’ and the aesthetics of home continue gency, 1960-1964’ to be negotiated in relation to each other. Moreover, negotiating one’s relationship and belonging to landscape is a gendered practice. Gender, age and one’s social and The road and rail pipelines operated by the liberation movements in Bechuanaland economic position as a veteran together crucially shape the female ex-combatants’ were known as the “road to freedom.’ An aerial pipeline enabled high value South sense of socio-spatial belonging. Thus though the category of ex-combatant closely African political refugees and freedom fighters to move through the Protectorate as binds these women to the state, their experience of Mozambique is not only fast as possible. This air bridge ran from Lobatse, via Kasane, then over-flew Northern mediated by the spatial politics of Frelimo nationalism. The paper shows that the Rhodesia to Mbeya, and then to Dar es Salaam before returning to Bechuanaland. Mozambique that takes shape in the female ex-combatants’ narratives is not a It operated as a mini-airline called Bechuanaland Air Safari’s and was financed by homogenous, unified landscape; rather, it is perceived as consisting of multiple and Bechuanaland’s government and a local millionaire businessman. Set up to support unequal landscapes that are valued according to different scales of beauty. the needs of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) this air bridge enabled SIS close surveillance of potential security issues within Bechuanaland, whilst simultaneously assisting organisations that would one day gain political power. The aerial pipeline Bheki R Mngomezulu: further facilitated Britain’s ‘double game’ of balancing its immediate interests with the Republic, versus its policy of ‘reinsurance’ which hinged on discreetly building ‘Being the shadow of men: Women’s role in the armedstruggle in Southern Africa contacts with the liberation movement leaders, while aligning to the longer term with specific reference to Ingwavuma’ trends of changing political realities in Africa. This made it a key intelligence target The armed struggle is one of the main episodes in the political history of Southern for South Africa’s security establishment who needed to penetrate this air bridge Africa. South Africa is no exception in this regard. The armed struggle affected all as part of their clandestine operations in Bechuanaland. Through surveillance and sections of society, albeit in different forms and magnitude. Invariably, post-liberation informants, they could then interdict the movement and activities of key personnel histories and politics of the armed struggle tend to present men as the protagonists involved in liberation struggle operations at that time. This paper examines the of the struggle. In a way, this is understandable given that more men than women setting up and operation of this air bridge, some of its key personnel and pilots, were visible in direct combat with the oppressive regimes. However, most of the surveillance operations by the South African Police and counter intelligence actions battles won by male combatants would have been impossible without women’s against them by the British authorities connected to supporting this pipeline. contribution. A cogent analysis of liberation histories through interviews and archival documents shows that women played a significant but sometimes inadvertently

40 41 Lennart Bolliger: Panel 13: Mapping the Armed Struggle ‘The Post-War Life Trajectories and Historical Narratives of Black Namibian and Angolan ExKoevoet and 32 Battalion Members’ Godfrey Maringira: ‘”Underground Operations”: Azania People’s Liberation Army Histories of southern Africa’s liberation struggles have been primarily written in the frame of thenation and have thus largely neglected the significant role played by guerrillas in South Africa’ transnational and inter-regional connections in shaping those struggles. In this paper, The liberation struggle in South Africa, was fought in the townships. However, very This paper explores the complex and seemingly paradoxical dynamics of ‘national little scholarships acknowledges the ways in which ‘underground operations’ were liberation’ through the case of black Namibians and Angolans, who were recruited coordinated in the townships against the apartheid government forces. This paper into the South African police counter-insurgency unit, Koevoet, and the South African examines underground operations by APLA guerillas, in particualr their hidden Defence Force’s 32 ‘Buffalo’ Battalion, and now reside in South Africa. It argues that activities in the fight against apartheid forces. The paper is based on life stories of the initially temporary ‘alliances’ between these soldiers and South Africa’s security APLA ex-combatants now living in the townships of Gugulethu, Nyanga east and KTC forces assumed a degree of permanence in the form of new and enduring military settlements in Cape Town. identities and loyalties. These often contradictory identities and loyalties have Keywords: Azania People’s Liberation Army, ex-combatants, military identity, remained salient in influencing the history and politics not only of southern Africa liberation struggle, South Africa as many ex-Koevoet and 32 Battalion members have served as ‘private security and military contractors’ in the region as well as in other parts of Africa and the world. By analysing the post-war life trajectories and historical narratives of these soldiers, this Jephias Andrew Dzimbanhete: brings into the focus the transnational character of the liberation struggles and the painful legacies of the conflicts’ ‘internalisation’ along familial, ethnic, racial, political ‘Sources about guerrilla activities in the Rhodesian countryside during Zimbabwe’s and ideological lines. armed struggle: the case of the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZAN- LA) field reports’ This paper discusses the significance of one notable source of the activities of the Calisto Samuel Remedios Baquete: liberation armies in the battlefield during Zimbabwe’s war of liberation. These were ‘Genesis of Movements of opposition to Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRE- field reports that were compiled by the frontline guerrilla fighters. The focus is on LIMO) in period from 1960 to 1994. The case of COREMO’ the field reports assembled by the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA), one of the liberation armies during the liberation war. The author had the This work intends to study in a historical way the genesis of movements of opposition privilege of perusing through the documents, which were housed at the Zimbabwe to Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO), in the period from 1960 to 1994, African National Union/Patritic Front (ZANU/PF) headquarters in Harare, when he to understand the dynamics of the conflicting groups. Given that it is impossible to was conducting fieldwork for his doctoral studies. Guerrilla activities included military cover all the groups, the aim of this work will be COREMO. This study is aimed at operations, interaction between the rural populace and the fighters, sanctions on analyzing the nature of the causes of antagonism among groups, political parties and liberation fighters for wrongdoings or contravention of set rules. This study seeks armed movements in Mozambique, based on the deconstruction of “ethnic conflicts”, to subject these documents to critical scrutiny as Zimbabwean liberation war to show that the main reasons were of ethnic and economic dimensions. The working historiographical sources. methodology mostly consisted, among others, in confrontation of memories, a number of studies, interviews, primary documents, inherent to correspondences, and reports from COREMO and PIDE∕DGS files. Asa Mudzimu: First the analysis focused on the pre-colonial period, characterized by antagonism ‘Convivialities, violence and deprivation: War and everyday life in guerrilla camps in among ethnic groups, and dispersed resistance struggles, followed by colonial period, Mozambique and Zambia’ consolidation and divisions for leadership of nationalist movements. Further on it analyzes the armed struggles period until the ceasefire agreement, moments of The key thrust of the paper is to paint a mosaic of life in the rear camps of conflicts, above all, the rival external and internal forces threatened by independence Zimbabwean guerrilla war of independence. Life in the rear camps constituted and creation of a new nation. a critical position in the sustenance of the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. The importance of the rear camps had been attached to the training of the Zimbabwean It also examines the apparent degeneration of COREMO and finally the reaffirmation army and the basic duty of transporting war necessities to the front. Apart from this stage of opposition parties and movements in the multi-party system period. logistical position, the rear camps had a rich convivial and introverted circumstances Keywords: COREMO, FRELIMO, Nationalism, Ethnicity and Political Movements which, like the events at the front, shaped the flow of the liberation struggle. Most of the time was spent in the rear camps in Mozambique and Zambia, and these camps which were not only all about war, violence and bombing were as important as the 42 43 Africanist Conference of East, Central and Southern Africa in Addis Ababa, where they fostered the support of Kaunda. They launched Africa Freedom Action in the belief that Northern Rhodesia was the weakest link in the edifice of settler colonialism in southern Africa, but also in the hope that Kaunda’s support for non-violent action might act as a counter to the advocates of armed resistance in the region. Along with the planned march, the group entered into discussions with Nyerere to establish a training centre for WPB volunteers. But instead, the camps that were established in Tanzania by 1964 served volunteer MK fighters. The ‘fate of non-violence’ had been sealed. But this history reveals something of the counter- narratives of the movements for liberation in southern Africa, and that far from being an inevitable development, the armed struggle developed in a complex interplay of nationalist and transnational politics. These unfulfilled peace campaigns nevertheless disclose the regional and international webs that helped give form to southern African liberation movements as they took shape in the 1960s. front. The structure of these rear camps, the concept of the parade as well as food rationing depict a somewhat desirable and adorable location in the reconstruction of the liberation war meta-narratives. In light of this, the study examines the everyday Robert Vinson and Benedict Carton: life relating to the social events in the rear camps. It locates this in the broader ‘Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Use of International debates and narratives surrounding deprivation and disease outbreaks arguing that Non-Violence in South Africa’s Turn to Armed Struggle’ the everyday life in the rear camps was part and parcel of the liberation struggle Albert Luthuli, ANC president from 1952-67, and Africa’s first Nobel Peace Prize which also impacted on its outcome. The study will therefore often sustained by winner in 1961, was one of the most renowned and respected African leaders of his inter-disciplinary context, including numerous photographs, secondary sources as era. His personal charisma, moral authority, and stirring vision of racial reconciliation well as oral interviews. and a non-racial, democratic South African rainbow nation made him a popular leader and potential head of state. Panel 15: Debates over Non-violence and the Turn to On December 16, 1961, as Luthuli returned to South Africa from Oslo, Norway, where he had just accepted his Nobel Peace Prize, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) initiated Armed Struggle sabotage attacks in several South African cities, initiating the ANC’s turn to armed struggle that raised several questions: Did Luthuli, who had so eloquently defended Robert Skinner: Ghandian non-violent principles, now advocate violence? Had he been disingenuous in Oslo about his commitment to non-violence? Or was he a victim of an internal ‘”Ignoring the temper of the people”: the “failure” of non-violence in southern coup, with more militant ANC members like Mandela unilaterally steering a new Africa, 1960-1962’ course? Did he support MK and the turn to armed struggle? Or was his position on In March 1962, members of ‘Africa Freedom Action’ waited in Mbeya, Tanzania, for non-violence and armed struggle far more nuanced than previous scholars have the call to lead a peace march across the border into Northern Rhodesia in support of indicated? the Zambian anti-colonial movement. The call never came. What had been envisaged South Africans, and scholars of the anti-apartheid movement, continue to debate as a pacifist counter to the emerging agenda of armed struggle in southern Africa and the turn to armed struggle, fuelling a vibrant historiographical debate in South a movement ‘vital to … the fate of non-violence in southern Africa’ ended as little African history that features several contrasting claims. For instance, the South more than a footnote in the history of decolonization. African intellectual and anti-apartheid activist Raymond Suttner has argued that But, between 1959-1962 international peace campaigners had established close Luthuli viewed MK and the turn to armed struggle as “just means” to achieve a post- links with African leaders, forging what seemed to be the basis for a transnational apartheid state. In contrast, recent Luthuli biographer Scott Couper has argued that pacifist network. From anti-nuclear campaigns in Ghana through to the launch of a Luthuli maintained a principled non-violent stance that led to his marginalization World Peace Brigade (WPB) - volunteers who would ‘would go to any area of tension in the ANC. The historian Stephen Ellis affirmed Couper’s view, adding that South in the world to practise moral “jiu-jitsu” on the warring inhabitants’ - activists African Communist Party members (including Mandela) dominated MK and the sought to place African struggles at the heart of the global peace movement. WPB strategic direction of armed struggle. The historian Paul Landau modified Ellis’ claims members, including the anti-apartheid activist Michael Scott and the African- by emphasizing the ANC’s leadership role in the turn to armed struggle and tracing American civil rights campaigner Bayard Rustin, focused efforts on nationalist and a decade-long preparation for armed struggle within a Luthuli-led ANC that had an post-independence leaders in Africa. In early 1962, they had taken part in the Pan- official policy of non-violence. President Zuma’s claims at a 2010 Luthuli Memorial

44 45 Lecture that Luthuli not only sanctioned the armed struggle, but also named MK, Panel 16: Art and Music in the Armed Struggle and public outcry about Couper’s arguments, reminds scholars that there is also a parallel, sometimes overlapping and frequently passionate public discourse about the role of Luthuli and Mandela in this iconic turn to armed struggle. What was Luthuli’s Judy Seidman: position on armed struggle? What was the role of Mandela, himself a future winner ‘”National Liberation is necessarily an act of culture”: Visual art of the armed strug- of a Nobel Peace Prize winner, in this pivotal moment in South African history? How gle in Southern Africa’ is Martin Luther King, Jr., famous for his American Civil Rights activism, relevant to this South African anti-apartheid story? Based on a forthcoming biography of Luthuli, The visual arts were fully represented within the culture of liberation that flourished this paper uses new archival sources to answer these questions and advance the within Southern Africa’s liberation movements. However, relatively little has been historiography in this contentious, controversial area of South African liberationist written about visual arts representing the armed struggle. This paper aims to explore history. the visual arts created around the armed struggle; and begin to position this within a broader understanding of the culture dynamics of Southern Africa’s liberation movements. This work is intentionally “participant and activist research”, based on Conrad Chibango: the author’s experience as a visual artist who worked with MK in the frontline states. ‘”Let my people go”: a liberation theology perspective ofZimbabwe’s armed strug- It is widely recognised that music, poetry and dance were integral cultural gle’ expressions within the liberation movements; styles were developed and practiced The decision by the Zimbabwean nationalists to resort to armed struggle in the within military camps, then adopted throughout “liberated zones”. In contrast, the fight against the white minority regime of Rhodesia brought division in the society visual arts followed a different trajectory. Military spaces and structures provided and even among Christians. Both the white minority regime on the one hand and little or no capacity for practicing the visual arts. Physically, there is no time and the liberation war movements on the other hand, blamed each other for the war space to create works, no secure space for storage and exhibition, and little capacity atrocities that left many dead. This paper discusses the theological justification of for reproduction or distribution. Security issues arose over representation of fighters the Zimbabwean liberation war. Since about 80% of the population in Zimbabwe – photographs and realistic portraits of active fighters potentially became a danger if is Christian, it is essential to consider the theological legacy left by thus liberation taken by the enemy. Thus, relatively few visual artists produced artworks expressing war. The issue of whether going to war is right or not is not new in the history of their experiences while simultaneously participating in the armed struggle - the Christianity. In the middle ages, Thomas Aquinas put forward the ‘just war theory’, outstanding example being Thami Mnyele. This paper in part discusses direct (in a model which political leaders could use to decide whether it was right or wrong to some cases personal) experiences of the problems encountered in this situation, and go to war with any enemy. Based on the commandment ‘thou shall not kill’, is also solutions found for them. another view but which accepts no circumstance in which any war can be justified. Most visual art about the armed struggle was produced within the mass movements In the wake of oppressive regimes and poverty mainly experienced in the third world that supported the armed struggle, to mobilise support for liberation armies, and to since the end of the 2nd World War, a theology based on the notion of liberation commemorate successes and sacrifices (key examples include art by Medu, and the of the oppressed masses through both theory and activism, arose, beginning in work of Malangatana and the murals of Maputo). Another subset of visual artwork Latin America. In South Africa, it took the form of Black Theology. In the light of came out of solidarity movements, often adopting visual memes developed by Liberation Theology, this paper assesses the armed struggle in Zimbabwe in the light other liberation struggles to Southern Africa. One result of this was that “art critics” of Liberation theology. It is argued that liberation theologians would have supported who felt uncomfortable with the alignment to socialist ideologies accused artists in the war but highlights that some atrocities committed by the liberation movements Southern Africa of using images that repeated propaganda and clichés, as opposed during the process did not merit justification. to drawing upon real experiences, beliefs and commitments, especially of the armed Keywords: Liberation theology; just war theory; option for the poor; liberation war; struggle. These debates played out in styles, symbols, and content of the visual art social justice. produced; moreover, they may play a role in more recent silences over assessing this body of artwork around the armed struggle as part of our visual heritage. This paper concludes that the lack of recognition accorded to the visual art of the armed struggle forms part of a broader failure to address the positive impact of the armed struggle in cultural practice and belief for our emergent, democratic societies.

46 47 Retha Langa: unclearly understood, the political imagination expanding beyond any consideration ‘An unruly counter-movement to the armed struggle: The revival of song as a weap- of objective constraint. on in contemporary South Africa’ Struggle songs have been resuscitated as a potent weapon in volatile political battles Rithuli Orleyn: in postapartheid South Africa. Many struggle songs are recalled and repurposed to ‘Banished Struggle Memories Archived In Sound: Amagwijo As Discourse’ mobilise support or humiliate opponents. This dynamic deployment of song takes place in the context of the country’s struggle past becoming an increasingly lively “As Blacks we come to understand that we cannot enter into the structure of battlefield for conflicts between political rivals. Views on the role of song during recognition as a being and incorporation into the community of beings without that the armed struggle, specifically the notion of song as a weapon of struggle, will be structure collapsing…” So memorializing and archiving the armed struggle in song examined and compared with its utilisation in post-apartheid South Africa in search presents us with a way to reflect on the armed struggle archive, as distillation of the of an answer to why songs composed under the oppressive conditions of apartheid ensemble of the aesthetic, where Sound and Language are metonyms for what is continue to have such a visceral impact today. A range of contexts were studied, excluded and what enjoys recognition and incorporation in the world as we know including the deployment of song at the elective conference of the African National it, respectively. This condensing of Freedom and Oppression into placeholders, Congress in 2012 and a museum exhibition on the function of song during apartheid. namely: Sound and Language, foregrounds underpinnings of suffering in a manner The court transcripts of the “Dubul’ibhunu” trial between AfriForum and Julius that foment a way to talk about Pan-African Black Consciousness ideology as counter- Malema in 2011 were analysed against the background of the scholarly literature dominant narrative adequate to deal an iconoclastic blow to oppression qua black- on song and the armed struggle. Focus groups will also be held to gain a better suffering (Black suffering as defined in the lexicon of Fanonian or Steve Biko school of understanding of people’s memories of the role of song during the armed struggle. thought). Song is harnessed as an uncontrollable, unpredictable weapon in the heat of political The collections of songs composed in exile by combatants coming from ideologically clashes in ways that form a vibrant counter-monument ─ in the sense used by James different movements (in the struggle against apartheid) weave psychic inheritance Young ─ to the armed struggle. This study of song furthermore also casts light on to experience of which Blacks have no recollection. The songs interrogate loss that people’s ideas about what history should do, who has the right to claim ownership of locate Black existence in Fanon’s “Zone of Nonbeing”, where Black corporeality exists it in contemporary South Africa, and why some existing commemorative projects to in a ferment characterized by suspension of ethical relations the armed struggle are experienced as alienating. The study zones in on the ideological difference posited by APLA (PAC military wing) versus MK (ANC military wing) against the carnage of nine dispossession wars that Paolo Israel: took place in the Cape of South Africa between late 1700 and late 1800. This is a period dotted by gratuitous white violence which constructs a new, never before ‘Mueda Massacre: the Musical Archive’ imagined, subjectivity— a Black subject defined by lack, erasure; a subject defined by Like Pidjiguiti in Guiné-Bissau or Baixa de Cassanje in Angola, the massacre that equivalence to absence. occurred in the northern Mozambican town of Mueda on 16th June 1960 has been As we engage with this Black subjectivity whose speech is silent in the face of inscribed in the nationalist narrative as the breaking point of anti-colonial unrest and gratuitous violence that forms it, two dictums map our conceptual framework: 1) the trigger of the armed liberation struggle. In the past twenty years several scholars Word is first and foremost sound and 2) Where speech is forbidden noise or sound have questioned the central tenets of the nationalist interpretation, especially idea becomes discourse. We explore this discourse in the subtext of silence and discordant that the stakes of the demonstration was political independence—a claim consid- disruptive sounds of exile song collection ered too lofty to be articulated by a mass of illiterate peasants guided by leaders enmeshed in ethnic organisations. Caught between the rhetorics of resistance and revisionism, the colonial archive and oral testimony, nationalism and ethnicity, the event itself has been rendered illegible. Panel 17: Pan-African Solidarities and the Armed Struggle To rescue June 16th from this deadlock this essay turns towards a different kind of historical material: song. Proceeding archeologically, it moves from songs that Lazlo Passemiers: reproduce the official version; to more ancient songs that express some direct ‘The PAC and SWAPO’s participation in the “Congo alliance”, 1963- 1964’ experience of the event, however layered and reformulated; to the songs that were sung at the time of the massacre. These songs pave the way to a reinterpretation of After the May 1963 summit of the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa, the massacre: from the point zero of a vanguardist history of national consciousness, the President of the Republic of Congo, Cyrille Adoula, granted permission to a to a utopian moment in which independence appeared as a possibility, however number of Southern African nationalist movements to establish their political and

48 49 military headquarters in Congo. The purpose of this initiative was to transform the This article attempts to newly independent republic into a centre of African nationalism, and provide a examine the political and base at Kinkuzu from which Southern African liberation movements could launch a military cooperation between coordinated offensive in their struggle for independence of the subcontinent. Both Frelimo and ZANU, as soon as the Pan African Congress (PAC) and the South West African People’s Organisation Mozambique independence. (SWAPO) participated in the Congo alliance. The alliance was the first time a Southern It analyses the ways in which African liberation movement received permission from an African government to Frelimo supported ZANU’s set up a military base in exile to train its recruits. It was also one of the first attempts struggle for liberation of by Southern African nationalist movements to join forces in order to liberate the Zimbabwe. It argues that subcontinent militarily. However, persisting leadership problems and bad logistical the political and military organisation and planning among its members, combined with the Congolese support that Frelimo offered government’s own political instability, made the Congo alliance a short-lived affair. to ZANU, can be seen as one of The current historiography has largly neglected this early episode in southern Africa’s element in a matrix of mutual armed struggle. By making use of interviews conducted with PAC members who cooperation and assistance were based in Congo, as well as a variety of new archival sources collected in South that tied the liberation Africa, the UK, Belgium, and the United States, this paper comprehensively outlines movements of Southern Africa the formation and breakdown of the Congo alliance and provides a detailed account together during the struggle of the PAC and SWAPO’s participation in it. In doing so, it documents the experiences for independence and against of some of the PAC’s first military combatants. Such an examination furthermore white minority regimes. This illustrates the fluid relationship that existed between independent African states like cooperation was motivated in Congo and Southern African liberation movements. part by feelings of reciprocal identification of one cause by another, as well as by Joel das Neves Tembe: moral values such as justice, ‘The anti-apartheid struggle and Mozambican solidarity’ friendship and brotherhood. The political and military support that Frelimo gave to Zimbabwean liberation The anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa was one of the most important event of movement was also extended to Mozambican’s ordinary people, particularly those the last quarter of the XX century. The struggle against apartheid was conducted who lived in the border areas in Manica, Tete and Chicualacuala. It is important within a regional context of decolonization armed struggles in Angola, Mozambique, emphasis that this was all facilitated by Frelimo’s revolutionary ideology and Zimbabwe and Namibia. From Tanganyika to battlefields in southern Africa the justified by its political propaganda, which argued forcefully that the liberation of liberation movements shared friendship and solidarity. The southern region benefited Mozambique would not be complete as long as Zimbabwe remained under white from OAU and international solidarity in support of its struggle for freedom. minority rule. The building of sense of solidarity was made much easier by the With the advent of independent states in the region, the role of Frontlines States common ancestry, language and culture of those Mozambicans and Zimbabweans was strengthened and solidarity against apartheid was intensified with neighbouring living in the border zones. The article is based on the analyses of archival material, countries providing close military, logistics and political support to freedom struggle newspapers, mainly the daily Notícias, Tempo, Southern Africa Magazine and in South Africa. Thus the last quarter of XX century witnessed a strong regional Zimbabwe News as well as few interviews with Frelimo militants and Mozambicans solidarity and confrontation by Apartheid regime against Mozambique and other people who had contact with militants of this nationalist movement. countries in the region. The solidarity was built under historical relations and friendship foundations between bordering countries. This paper will discuss the experiences of anti-Apartheid solidarity by Frelimo’s government and Mozambicans Matteo Grilli: in general. Sources will be drawn from interviews and local press. ‘Nkrumah’s role in the armed struggle in Southern Africa (1960-1966)’ Key words: anti-Apartheid struggle, frontlines states, Frelimo, solidarity. Between 1957 and 1966 Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana provided African liberation movements with funds, political support, and military training. In Nkrumah’s estimation, Southern Africa was a key battle ground for Africa’s future and the harsh Clinarete Munguambe: confrontation with White settlers led him to abandon non-violence as a strategy. Both ‘Nationalism and Exile in an Age of Solidarity: Military cooperation between ZANU South African political refugees and members of nationalist parties of South Africa’s and FRELIMO in Mozambique (1975-1980)’ neighboring states were hosted in Ghana. Although Nkrumah officially pushed for a 50 51 united front, the PAC not the ANC was given a leading role in Ghana’s anti-apartheid Benny Moyo: plans, leading South Africa towards socialism and Pan-Africanism. From a military ‘Socialist internationalism and the Zimbabwe People’s RevolutionaryArmy (ZPRA) – perspective, Poqo maintained its collaboration – although not always fruitful – with a game-changer’ Accra. This paper aims to reconstruct the transnational military network that was built by Ghana. As Jeffrey Ahlman has shown, Accra’s military involvement in the After the sabotage operation by youth wing cadres of the National Democratic Party region still requires more research. Specifically, Ghanaian weapons were transported {N.D.P} of the early sixties ,the formation of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union across the region, often being routed through the vast net of embassies that [ZAPU] saw the first group of cadres sent for training in the then U.S.S.R and China. Nkrumah had created in Africa. Information on this routes can be either found in Among these cadres were those who were later constitute the Luthuli detachment, the Ghanaian and British papers or they are provided by informants I interviewed led by J. Dube and deputized by Chris Hani- a joint Z.A.P.U-A.N.C operation. who witnessed these events. Based on newly available sources from the Ghanaian Thereafter in the sixties, cadres were sent for training in various military disciplines archives, Ghana’s involvement in the armed struggle in Southern Africa will be in the entire socialist block-the U.S.S.R, Czechoslovakia, the Germany Democratic discussed to determine the extent to which Ghana’s Bureau of African Affairs Republic, Romania, Yugoslavia, Poland and Cuba. As the struggle intensified and contributed to liberation in Southern Africa between 1960 and 1966. Moreover, the qualitatively changed to assume a conventional form, Z.I.P.R.A crafted the final push competition with the OAU Liberation Committee will be analyzed. and sent cadres to Romania and Yugoslavia to train tank and armoured cars fighters while some were sent to the U.S.S.R to train as M.I.G jet fighter pilots and different facets of regular warfare. Meanwhile in Zambia, Angola and Ethiopia there were East Panel 18: Southern Africa’s Armed Struggle and the World Germany, Russian and Cuban military advisers and instructors. Meanwhile the weapons provided by the socialist countries particularly from 1978 onwards changed the whole complexion of the war. The surface to air missiles meant Kenneth Tafira: the Rhodesians could not continue to enjoy air superiority. Apart from the military ‘Armed Liberation Struggles in Southern Africa and the Global GeoPolitical Order: hardware and support through international socialist solidarity Z.A.P.U/Z.I.P.R.A South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Angola’ were able to access food, medical supplies, foot wear and scholarships for its cadres. Typically Z.I.P.R.A was structured along socialist lines with all units having a political The armed liberation struggle in the Southern African countries of South Africa, commissar as the deputy commander. Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Angola got into full swing from 1960. The struggles coincided with the post World War Two inception of the so-called Cold War pitting Key words:- internationalism, socialist solidarity, military hardware western capitalist countries and the socialist Eastern Block, with the Soviet Union at its headship. As the West and the East ideologically, politically and economically competed for control of the global geo-political order where they played a silent war, Chiara Torcianti: Southern Africa experienced a hot war. The socialist block supported the liberation ‘The struggle continues: Italian reception of the liberation movement in Mozam- movements in form of material, financial and weaponry while the West aided bique’ counter-revolutionary and reactionary insurgents. Since 1488 when Bartholomew During the ‘70s, Italian public opinion was seriously involved in liberation struggle in Diaz circumnavigated the Cape and 1652 when Jan Van Riebeeck founded the Mozambique. In particular in Emilia region, communist party and leftist movements colonisation of South Africa, and 1795 when the British arrived at the Cape, the organized campaigns and published magazines about this issue. Reggio Emilia Southern African region has been incrementally and gradually assuming strategic and Hospital healed Frelimo’s wounded warriors; and a local family hosted Samora’s son geo-political importance in global order. Indeed Southern Africa, unlike other parts Samito. As to the cultural field, this struggle was represented as a continuation of of Africa, experienced a large contingent of settler colonialism, who stationed in the Italian Resistance during the Second World War, using a similar lexicon and imaginary. region and made it their home. Western imperial capital set up base and extracted “A lucha continua” was the rallying cry of the Frelimo movement; but the same words labour, resources and wealth which the region is endowed. These factors would (Lotta continua) were the name of an italian far left extra-parliamentary organization, determine the nature, form, direction and outcome of the liberation struggle. Having which at that time resumed and disputed partisan legacy, so creating a spatial patterned out this background, it is the intention of this paper to analyse how the and temporal circuit. The present paper deals with Italian support to Frelimo and global geo-political order influenced the armed struggle. Secondly I look at how and representation of its struggle as prismatic reflex of italian experience and identity, why Southern African armed liberation movements failed to inflict military defeat on with particular with particular regard to Reggio Emilia’ experience. Main sources are their erstwhile colonial masters. Thirdly I explore how this led to the nature of the Reggio Emilia - Africa Archives in Reggio Emilia . post-colonial and post-Soviet order. Key words: liberation struggle movements’ geo-political colonial armed

52 53 Panel 19: Documenting and Archiving the Armed Struggle Films

Gabriele Mohale: Cuba- South Africa: After the Battle ‘What comes after the struggle?: From the Archive of Ronnie Kasrils’ Some of the leading independent archives in South Africa, particularly University Director: Estella Bravo, 1991, Run time: 58 minutes archives such as Historical Papers at Wits University, have been documenting the Synopsis: Filmed on location in Angola, South Africa, Namibia and Cuba this docu- struggle against Apartheid, including the armed struggle, prior to 1994 through mentary examines the Angolan war from all sides and features remarkable footage collections of activists, civil rights organisations, political formations, trade unions and interviews with soldiers and grieving families of those who were killed in that and political trials against enemies of the Apartheid state. However, the archives of war. South Africans in the anti-Apartheid struggle outside South Africa, being the archives Awards: Silver Apple, National Educational Film and Video Festival and Golden Gate of exile, consist to a large extent of collective collections generated by the main role San Francisco Film Festival. players in exile such as the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress. What seems to be absent from the narrative of exile, apart from oral accounts of memories in the form of interviews, are individuals’ own documentations of the armed struggle. That is not surprising, giving the covert nature of the armed struggle. Dieci giorni con i guerriglieri del Mozambico libero (Ten Days with the Using the extensive collection of Ronnie Kasrils at the Historical Papers Research Guerrillas in Mozambique’s Liberated Areas) (1972) Archive, this paper wants to bring out some of the items which are representative for Director: Franco Cigarini, Italy, 1972, Run time: 23 min aspects of the armed struggle, particularly in the MK camps in Angola, following the Youth uprising in 1976 in Soweto and other townships. In doing so it also wants to Synopsis: Between August and September 1972, a delegation of the “Commitee of investigate possible reasons behind the absence of similar archives, and at the same Health Aid for the People of Mozambique” from the Italian city of Reggio Emilia was invited by the leaders of FRELIMO to visit the liberated areas of that African country. time wanting to encourage others to contribute every bit of trace there is, for future During the trip the cameraman of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Franco Cigarini, generations to see and to understand the road which they travel beyond the borders filmed some shots that were subsequently edited in this audio-visual product. The of their home country. film documents the efforts of FRELIMO in the reorganisation, on the economic and Sylvester Dombo: social fronts, of the territory then under its control. Great attention is paid to the two key issues managed by the liberation movement: education and health care. The ‘Running out of time? An evaluation of “Capturing a Fading National Memory Proj- twinning between the Hospital of Reggio Emilia and the one of Cabo Delgado (led ect” in Zimbabwe’ by FRELIMO) started in 1970, and this special relationship is one of the subjects of In Zimbabwe, the history of the liberation struggle is very important. In this vein, the film. Ultimately this movie wants to highlight not only the discipline and social awareness of the leadership of FRELIMO, but also the close relationship that existed the Zimbabwean government in 2007 launched an ambitious program to capture between the local population and the guerrillas. the memories of people involved in the liberation struggle; both veterans and collaborators. It was pointed out that 27 seven years of independence posed a great risk to the preservation of the country’s liberation history as participants were Action Kommandant (2016) either dying or losing their memories. Resultantly, the government in collaboration Director: Nadine Cloete, Ma’engere Film Productions, South Africa, 2016Run time: with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, the National Archives 90 min of Zimbabwe and the History Department at the University of Zimbabwe launched a program called Capturing a Fading National Memory. This article evaluates this Synopsis: Action Kommandant is the untold story of slain South African liberation program; how it was planned and executed. It also looks at the representativeness fighter, Ashley Kriel. of the informants and their subjectivities. The article basically looks at the challenges During the oppressive apartheid era Ashley was known as the Ché Guevara of Cape in executing oral history project in a country then suffering serious economic and Town’s notorious ‘Cape Flats’. He was born into a single-mother, working class family political challenges. How did the operating environment affect the end product? With in Bonteheuwel and grew to become the symbol of 1980s youth resistance. the benefit of hindsight, what can we learn from the recent turbulence in ZANU PF as Ashley’s story is told through pockets of memory opened by those who were closest those formerly regarded as liberation icons are now seen as having played no part in to him. A wound unmended is explored through these intimate interviews. the struggle. Was capturing a fading memory enough or we need a second volume of The film opens with the voice of Ashley’s mother, Ivy Kriel. This audio interview the same programme representing views of the present? travels with us throughout the film as it introduces various chapters of Ashley’s life. It serves to humanize the Ashley that has become such an icon. Ivy Kriel worked as a

54 55 tea girl at a factory and her only son’s involvement in anti-apartheid movements was Flame not something she welcomed immediately. Director: Ingrid Sinclair, 1996, Run time:90 min. At 13 years old Ashley organized a protest march around his primary school before he had joined any political organization. His close friend, Gavin Adams, speaks about Synopsis: Set during Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation, two fifteen year old girls, Florence how they were cool cats and started a street gang called GAP. The GAP brothers and Nyasha, leave their traditional village to join the guerrilla army fighting based in joined the Bonteheuwel Youth Movement (BYM) where Quentin Michels was the the bush. It’s a new world. The training camp is harsh, but in many ways it broadens chairperson. It was here that Ashley was introduced to ideologies of the then banned their horizons. They train with the men and no longer kneel before them as they did African National Congress. in the village. They take classes in political education. But they also find out that one The film traces this guerrilla soldier’s development from being a member of the pro- of the trainees is sleeping with a Commander - the only girl with food and soap to gressive BYM through to addressing crowds on public platforms. Ashley’s popularity relieve the everlasting dirt and hunger. They’re horrified, but before long, Florence grew to such an extent that it became increasingly riskier for him be an underground too is forced to sleep with a Commander. The story unfolds with birth and then tragic operative of the ANC in the Western Cape. death, till grief pushes Florence, now with the war name of Flame, to become a crack soldier. Based on true stories and detailed research, the film never shies from the How did Ashley go into exile? What happened to him in the Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK) complex and contradictory actions and decisions faced by a traditional young woman camps? What were his MK duties when he arrived back in Cape Town? Will we ever in her new task as a soldier. It is this web of understanding that universalizes difficult find the truth about his death? discussions about war and independence, loss and victory, gender and politics, and Ashley Kriel contributed to revolutionizing working class youth. The film shows never has given FLAME a universal perspective that has led to worldwide demand. seen before footage of Ashley’s funeral and explores what went wrong with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission investigation of his murder. In a haunting last record- Festivals, Awards: Cannes Film Festival, Director’s Fortnight; Human Rights Watch, ing of his voice he sings: ‘Don’t mourn for me, organize’ New York (Nestor Almendros prize); Amiens (Best Film, Best Actress); JCC,Tunisia (Special jury prize); Southern African Film Festival (Best film); M-Net TV (Best music); Annonay (Best film); COE Milan (Best film); Mill Valley; Mannheim (Best documenta- The Routes to Freedom ry) and many more. Director: Patrick Ricketts, South Africa. Run Time: 60 min Synopsis: The documentary gives a much-needed perspective on the role played by Stories, Shadows and Dust: Experiences of the SADF Soldier in the Southern the people of Botswana, before and after independence from Britain, in support of African Bush War (2012) the liberation struggles in Southern Africa. In particular the documentary explains the Director: Garrett Eriksen, 2012 Run Time: 36:09 min origins, operation and impact of the Francistown-Kasane route and its significance in the region’s history of resistance to colonialism, racism and apartheid. Synopsis: An intimate documentary covering the experiences of five SADF veterans who served in Angola during the South African Border War. A mix of archive footage, On a political level, the central thesis of the film is that colonialism, racism and apart- interviews and slides illustrate the story of these individuals on what their time on heid inextricable linked the destinies of the countries of Southern Africa. Political The Border meant to them, what they experienced whilst deployed and how it im- organisations, as well as ordinary citizens of the region, realised that no country pacted their relationship with the world at large. would be free until all are free. There was indeed a selfless sense of solidarity across Southern Africa. “An intimate documentary covering the experiences of five SADF veterans who served in Angola during the South African Border War. A mix of archive footage, interviews On an operational level, the film shows that the movement of people through the and slides illustrate the story of these individuals on what their time on The Border migrant labour system gave activists, particularly those in Botswana, the building meant to them, what they experienced whilst deployed and how it impacted their blocks on which to build a reliable and efficient route into exile and military training relationship with the world at large.” for thousands of young men and women who sought to continue the political strug- gle through armed means. These brave and committed individuals could later return to their respective countries to conduct military operations through these very same Tribute to the Frontline States routes. On a historical level, the film uses never before seen interviews with those direct- Director: Mandy Jacobson and Barbara King, South Africa, 2014, Run time: 53 min. ly involved in operating this vital pipeline to freedom, as well as those who were transported by the Botswana pipeline workers. The film fills a gap in the commonly Synopsis: A Tribute to the Frontline States tracks three generations of Sisulu’s through understood history of armed resistance in Southern Africa by elevating this essential to their return from exile from the Frontline States. This portrait recognizes the contribution of the Botswana people to its rightful place. extraordinary alliance known as ‘The Frontline States’, whose generosity and bravery provided a home in exile to one of the longest-lived revolutionary movements on Among those who feature in the film are: Mike Dingake, Klaas Motshidisi, Simon the African Continent. Illustrious liberation movement icons Thabo Mbeki, Kenneth Tladi, Marten Kapewasha, Helao Shityuwete, Chris Hani, James April, Baba Dlamini, Kaunda, Joachim Chissano, and Ketumile Masire, detail how the Frontline States put Timothy Williams and others. themselves in harm’s way in this high-risk venture to secure South Africaâ’s Freedom. 56 57 Cloete, Nadine is an independent documentary filmmaker passionate about identity and history as themes in her work. The documentary about Ashley Kriel is her first feature film.

Dombo, Sylvester (Great Zimbabwe University) teaches history at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo School of Arts and Humanities. His research interests include media democracy, land reform, religion and politics.

Biographies Douglas, Helen From 1987 to 1990, Helen and Rob Douglas kept a safe house in Johannesburg as part of Operation Vula. They were recruited in Canada, where they were active in the anti- Benneyworth, Garth apartheid movement, and returned there when Vula was uncovered. The questions Garth is a historian who specialises in South African military history with a particular raised by her experience in South Africa led Helen to study philosophy. Returning to focus on the Armed Struggle and the South African War (1899-1902). He is published South Africa in 1997, Helen now works as a counselling philosopher in Cape Town, on the Armed Struggle. In 2015, the Routledge Taylor & Francis Group chose his offering an engaged, emancipatory alternative to orthodox psychotherapy. Her first paper, Armed and Trained, Nelson Mandela’s 1962 military mission as Commander book, Love and Arms: Violence and Justification after Levinas, came out in 2011 and in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe and provenance for his buried Makarov pistol, as one she has published extensively on philosophical practice. Her current project is a more of 12 publications under the category History to honour Nelson Mandela’s life and poetic and personal meditation on war, the underground, subjectivity and peace. legacy. Garth developed a number of key post 1994 heritage projects, including the Website: www.philosophy-practice.co.za. Nelson Mandela National Museum where he served as a Councillor, the Chief Albert Luthuli Museum and Liliesleaf. During 2001 to 2008, Garth pioneered the first ever archeological surveys and excavations on 7 Black concentration camp sites dating from Dzimbanhete, Jephias Andrew (Great Zimbabwe University) the South African War (1899-1902), a subject of his PhD Degree. is currently a History lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University. with a D. Lit. & Phil. degree in History Bolliger, Lennart (University of Oxford) DPhil Candidate in International Development at the University of Oxford Fisher, Anton is a former MK operative in the Western Cape; he produced the film The Routes to Freedom Carton, Benedict (The College of William and Mary and George Mason University) is the Robert T. Hawkes Professor of History and Africa Coordinator of the African & African American Studies Program at George Mason University, Virginia, USA. He Eriksen, Garrett (Stellenbosch University) received his PhD in History from Yale and taught at the University of Natal (now U. grew up in Oudtshoorn in the Western Cape working with animals at a wildlife park, KwaZulu-Natal), where he was twice a Fulbright scholar. He is the author of Blood from then studied History at Rhodes University, with an interest in military history. After he Your Children: Colonial Origins of Generational Conflict in South Africa (2000) and completed an MSc in African Studies at Edinburgh University, where he produced the co–editor of Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present (2008). His recent essay on first film-based dissertation in departmental history. armed struggle, ‘Forgetting Apartheid: History, Culture and the Body of a Nun’ (with Leslie Bank), appeared in AFRICA 86,3 (2016). Carton’s next book with Robert Vinson is titled, “Shaka’s Progeny, A Transnational History: Zulu and Americans in the Arc of Grilli, Matteo (University of the Free State) Racial Justice, 1820-2000.” is a historian specialized in the history of modern Africa, dealing in particular with the history of decolonization and Pan-Africanism. He obtained his BA in History at the Chibango, Conrad (Great Zimbabwe University) University of Rome in 2008 and he completed his MA in “Afro-Asian Studies” at the is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Great Zimbabwe Univ. of Pavia in 2010. In 2015, he completed his PhD at the Univ. of Leiden and the University. Univ. of Pavia (Joint-PhD program). In 2016, he joined the International Studies Group of the Univ. of the Free State as a post-doctoral fellow. 58 59 Hadebe, Samukele (Public Policy Research Institute of Zimbabwe) he has carried out research in northern Mozambique on themes connected with dance, music, magic and history. His book, In Step with the Times: Mapiko Masquerades of is a director at the Centre for Public Engagement, an independent think tank on citizen Mozambique (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2014) charts the historicity of Makonde participation in public policy processes in Zimbabwe. He previously held a similar masquerades throughout the twentieth century. He has also written on traditional position at the Public Policy Research Institute of Zimbabwe.He worked as a principal storytelling, orality, liberation songs, contemporary art, and witchcraft. He lives at director, Government of Zimbabwe 2010-2013 and previously he was a lecturer at works in Cape Town. the University of Zimbabwe (1995- 2009). He holds a doctorate in linguistics and has published extensively in lexicography, Ndebele literature and culture. Jordan, Zweledinga Pallo Hala, Mike (Rhodes University) was born on May 22 1942 in, Kroonstad, Orange Free State, grew up in Cape Town. He was active in politics since age 7 selling movement newspapers; and active in Cape born in Queenstown, was part of the 1976 generation who played a key role in Peninsula Student’s Union and later the Modern Youth Society as teenager. energising and shaping the various sites of struggle for the national liberation of South Africa. Hala was a student activist at his school, Mzomhle High, and harassed and He worked for the ANC in the Department of Information and Publicity (DIP) as head of detained by the apartheid security police. In the midst of his matric year, Hala sought Research on a full-time basis from 1975; and was appointed head of Radio Freedom in out the African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP) 1977. in exile. Profoundly effected by the conditions of severe repression in apartheid South In 1979 Jordan was appointed director of the ANC’s first internal mass propaganda Africa at the time Hala opted to join Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK). In recognition of his campaign, “The Year of the Spear”, marking the centenary of the Battle of Isandhlwana formidable strategic capabilities in a military environment he rose rapidly to a position of 1879. of leadership in MK. As the first commander of MK Special Forces, he underwent military training in locales such as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), Ghana and He led a number of delegations of ANC scholars to international conferences and Cuba; participated in key MK campaigns and operations; developed close relations seminars in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, the USA, Britain, and the then USSR. with key figures in the ANC (notably Chris Hani) and developed an extensive knowledge He served on the National Preparatory Committee for the Kabwe Consultative of political and social issues. With the advent of democracy Mr Hala was part of the Conference in 1985. process of the integration of various statutory and non-statutory military forces after He was elected to the National Executive Committee(NEC) 1985 and served as 1994. In 1996 Hala left the new South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He administrative secretary of the NEC secretariat from 1985 to 1988. has served in various senior management positions in the Eastern Cape Provincial Government, and is currently employed as Director of Security for the Eastern Cape Jorday was convenor on the NEC’s Strategy and Tactics Committee; and served on the Department of Health. NEC’s sub-committee on Negotiations and the NEC’s sub-committee on Constitutional guidelines. In 1989 he succeeded Thabo Mbeki as director of information and publicity. Hlongwane, Ali Khangela (City of Johannesburg) Jordan accompanied Oliver Tambo, Mac Maharaj, Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki and James works for the City of Johannesburg as Head of Museums and Galleries. He holds a Ph.D. Stuart to the meeting between White business leaders and the ANC at the Luangwa in Heritage and an MA in Public Culture and Biography and Society both from Wits Game Reserve, Zambia in 1986. University. Hlongwane is co-editor with Sifiso Ndlovu and Mothobi Mutloatse of Soweto 76- Reflections on the liberation struggles. Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of He was part of the ANC’s delegations to the IDASA-sponsored Dakar (1987) and Paris June 16, 1976 and editor of Footprints of the “Class of 76”: Commemoration, memory, (1989) conferences. mapping and heritage. He has published in various journals including the Pan African He returned to the South Africa in June 1990; he was re-elected to his NEC position at Journal, Journal of African Cultural Studies and Safundi: The Journal of South African and ANC conferences held in 1991 (the ANC’s first elective conference inside the country in American Studies. His research interests are in heritage, memory, commemoration and 30 years), and again in 1994, 1997, 2002 and 2007. the life histories of Pan Africanist Congress activists (veterans). Jordan served as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications; Environmental Affairs and Tourism; and Arts and Culture. Israel, Paolo (University of the Western Cape) was born in Rome, Italy. He studied Philosophy at the University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Junior, Miguel (Institute Military Technical Angola) where he graduated with a dissertation on oral style in traditional Italian storytelling. In 2001 he enrolled for doctoral studies at the Ecole des Hautes Etudies in Sciences is currently a Lieutenant General Angolan Armed Forces. He holds a Masters of Military Sociales of Paris, with a focus on the anthropology of art and performance. Since 2002 History and a PHD in History. He is also Professor of Military History at the Institute 60 61 Military Technical Angola; and the author of several books and many articles on an extraordinary researcher at the University of the Western Cape. Defense, Security and History. Maharaj, Mac Katto, Jonna (University of Helsinki) has been active in the freedom struggle since 1953. During its course he has served is a doctoral student from the University of Helsinki. She’s completing her doctoral on the central committee and politburo of the SACP, and as secretary of the Internal studies at the Department of World Cultures in 2016. Her research is about female Political Reconstruction Department of the ANC, on the Revolutionary Council and guerrilla soldiers who fought in the Mozambican war of independence from 1964 to Politoco-Military Council as well as the NEC of the ANC. In the U.K. he was a founder 1974. member of the AntiApartheid Movement. Mac served a term of twelve years on Robben Island Prison. During the negotiations King, Barbara and transition he was joint secretary of Codesa and the MultiParty Negotiation Forum and the Transitional Executive Council. He served as Minister of Transport in the first is a producer, content director, writer of documentaries and talk shows in South Africa democratic government of SA. He retired in 2015 after serving as spokesman of the since 1993. Her documentaries focus on socio-political-cultural aspects of Southern President from 2011-2015. He edited Reflections in Prison and has been the subject of Africa. a biography by Padraig O’Malley entitled Shades of Difference: Mac Maharaj and the Struggle for South Africa. Langa (née Grobbelaar), Retha (University of the Witwatersrand) is currently completing her PhD degree in Heritage at the University of the Makanyisa, Ishmael (Great Zimbabwe University) Witwatersrand. Her thesis focuses on the deployment of struggle songs as active is a lecturer at Great Zimbabwe University. He holds a Master’s degree in African heritage in political battles in contemporary South Africa. Retha successfully applied for History from Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, and is currently a permanent her Master’s degree to be converted into a PhD in 2013. She has an Honours degree in lecturer in the School of Arts and Humanities and teaches History and Development History from the University of the Witwatersrand (with distinction) and a BPhil degree studie with a great passion for contemporary issues and past events. He is also a PhD in Journalism from Stellenbosch University. part time student in Development Studies with Wits University

Mabandla, Nkululeko (CAS, UCT) Mangashe, Patrick founded the People’s Learning Theatre Organization after returning to South Africa was recuited into the ANC in 1977, joined MK in 1978, underwent military training after political exile, Mabandla and worked as a consultant in the areas of management from 1979 to 1983. Infiltrated back inside in 1986, based in the Border region. He oined of change and organisational development. Nkululeko has also worked in the Film and the NIA in 1985; he is presently reading for History Masters with the University of Fort TV industry as an actor, director and script writer. In 2010, he went back to further Hare. his education which had been cut short by his anti-apartheid activism and completed an MA, with distinction, at UCT’s Sociology Department in 2012. Nkululeko’s thesis was entered into an international competition, sponsored by Leiden University’s Maringira, Godfrey (University of the Western Cape) (Netherlands) African Studies Centre (ASC-Leiden), and won the Afrika Thesis Award is a VolkswagenStiftung Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of the 2012, for the best thesis based on original empirical research on Sub Saharan Africa. Western Cape. His areas of interest include the ethnography of war, Veterans life in the His thesis, has since been published in book form in 2013. Nkululeko is a doctoral aftermath of conflict and Military landscapes fellow at the Institute for Humanities in Africa. His current research is on Chinese traders in South Africa’s rural towns. McKinley, Dale T. Macmillan, Hugh (African Studies Centre, University of Oxford, University of the is an independent writer, researcher and lecturer who has been based in Johannesburg Western Cape) for 25 years. He holds a PhD. in International Political Economy from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill in the USA. Dale is a long-time political activist and has is a historian who has published widely on the history of Southern Africa. His most been involved in social movement, community and liberation struggles for over three recent books are The Lusaka Years: The ANC in Exile in Zambia (2013) and Chris Hani, a decades. He is the author of four books and has written widely on various aspects of Jacana pocket biography (2014). His pocket biography of Jack Simons is in the press. He South African and international political, social and economic issues and struggles. Dale is currently a research associate at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford and 62 63 occasionally lectures at university level and is a regular speaker at various civil society Moloi, Tshepo (History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand) and academic social and political conferences and events. He is a regular contributor to is a researcher in the History Workshop Research Group, University of the Witwa- the South African print media as well as commentator on radio and television. tersrand. He is the author of A Place of Thorns: Black political protest in Kroonstad Since 1976 (Wits University Press, 2015). He has published on student politics in South Melber, Henning (Nordic Africa Institute) Africa. He is currently researching histories of resistance in Mpumalanga province in the 1980s and 1990s. graduated in Political Sciences (PhD) and Development Studies (habilitation). He had joined SWAPO as a son of German immigrants in 1974 and was exiled from 1975 to 1989. He was Director of the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek from 1992 to 2000 and then re-located to Uppsala/Sweden to become the Moyo, Benny (Mafela Trust) Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute (2000-2006) and subsequently the holds a Certificate of Education, Bachelor of Education and Masters in Education, Executive Director of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (2006-2012). He is a Senior {Father was a member of the ZAPU national council} He is a poet and teacher, Board Advisor to both institutions, Extraordinary Professor at the Department of Political member of Mafela Trust Sciences/University of Pretoria and the Centre for Africa Studies/University of the Free State and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies/University of London. He is co-editor of the Africa Yearbook (Leiden: Brill), managing co-editor of Mthembi, Fumani (Knowledge Pele) Africa Spectrum and editor-in-chief of the Strategic Review for Southern Africa. is the managing director of Knowledge Pele, the research and development subsidiary of the Pele Energy Group. Highest education level: MA Science and Development. Mngomezulu, Bhekithemba Richard (UWC/Mzala Nxumalo Centre} comes from Ingwavuma in northern KwaZulu-Natal Province in South Africa. He has Mudzimu, Asa (Rhodes University) seven academic degrees in Politics, History and Education, plus a Senior Secondary is a student doing MA in African History at Rhodes University, South Africa; completed Teachers Diploma. Five of these degrees were obtained at South African universities Honours in History degree with the University of Zimbabwe; worked as a History while two (including his PhD) were obtained at Rice University in Texas, USA. To-date, teacher in Harare before became a Teaching Assistant at the University of Zimbabwe, Prof. Mngomezulu has published four books, three book chapters, twelve book reviews History Department. Mudzimu has many research interests including the legacy of and several journal articles. He has presented over 90 academic papers nationally colonialism, medical history and the liberation struggle. and internationally. He is the Professor of Political Science at UWC and also serves as the CEO of the Mzala Nxumalo Centre for the Study of South African Society. Prof. Mngomezulu is the President of the Economic History Society of Southern Africa Munguambe, Clinarete (Universiity of the Western Cape) and belongs to many other academic bodies. He also serves in the Nelson Mandela studied at UWC, achieving a Master in History December 2007; and BA-Honors in Museum Council. His research interests include: international relations, African History, Eduardo Mondlane University. From 2012 he worked as Research Assistant comparative politics, higher education and traditional leadership. at the History Research Center (CPHLLN) in Maputo ; from December 2007 to May 2009 as Research Assistant in the Research Project “Methods and Results of Health Campaigns in Mozambique, 1975 1985”, Karonlinska Institut. Mohale, Gabriele (Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand) is an archivist at the Historical Papers Research Archive at the University of the Mujere, Joseph, (University of Zimbabwe) Witwatersrand. is a senior lecturer in the History Department at the University of Zimbabwe. He is also Originating from the German Democratic Republic, she studied and worked in the Research Associate in the Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP), University printing industry for 11 years, when she got married to a South African living in exile of the Witwatersrand. He holds a PhD (History) from the University of Edinburgh. in GDR. She left for Tanzania in 1990 joining her husband who then returned to South His research interests include migration, belonging, citizenship as well as media and Africa in 1991. society. Some of his articles appear in journals such as South African Historical Journal, Journal of Southern African Studies, Africa and Journal She worked at the ANC Headquarters until 1994 and later took up employment at the University of the Witwatersrand. Over the years she graduated with a Bachelor of Information Science from the University of South Africa (UNISA) and a Masters in Ndimande, Jefferson (Solusi University, Zimbabwe) Heritage Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. studied History as well as Literature in English for an undergraduate degree in 64 65 Zimbabwe, and then later on took up Peace and Conflict Studies at postgraduate Patrick Ricketts level. Currently he teaches courses at the Department of History, Peace and Conflict is director and producer of The Routes to Freedom; he is a former MK Studies, in Conflict Theory, Peacebuilding, Human Rights and other areas. His research commander. interests range from the International relations of liberation movements, borderlands and the Zimbabwean liberation war with a particular focus on the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZPRA) which was the armed wing of Zimbabwe’s African Peoples Sadomba, Frederick (Zimbabwe Open University) Union (ZAPU). Narratives of the history of liberation movements tend to capture the exploits of the ‘great men’ those who perhaps were leaders and commanders, yet is currently senior lecturer and chairperson in the department of peace, leadership and leaving out the ‘little men’ who without them, there would not have been the foot conflict resolution at the zimbabwe open university. areas of interest include defence soldiers, He is also influenced by the ideas of Michel Foucault and Gayatri Spivak’s and security, peace studies, national security, human security, gender and conflict. concept of the subaltern, and the life histories approach which empowers the subaltern to tell his or her story, to bring them into the grand narrative. He uses an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the past and has been ‘experimenting’ with Seidman, Judy integrating linguistics in order to unfold and understand more about the past. is a visual artist who worked as a graphic artist with ANC in various frontline states from 1972 to 1990; as a member of Medu Art Ensemble (Gaborone) 1980 – 1985; with MK structures 1985-1990; and subsequently in Johannesburg. Seidman has Orleyn, Rithuli (The Con Magazine, Afrikadaa) written extensively on visual arts and culture of resistance; books include (as part of is a contributing editor for The Con Magazine and a writer for a French magazine on Posterbook Collective) Images of Defiance (1990); and Red on Black, the Story of the art and politics called Afrikadaa; she has written for Mail and Guardian and Mahala South African Poster Movement (2007). portal, and co-authored a postgraduate study paper on Social Determinants of HIV among Men who have Sex with Men in Cape Town (a paper yet to be published). As a song-writer, her work features on two SAMA nominated albums by an artists who’s Skinner, Robert (University of Bristol, UK) work, in film, garnered a nomination for Oscar awards. works on the history of transnational social movements and has written extensively on the origins of anti-apartheid activism, and more recently on peace campaigners and As part of her activism, through Blackhouse Kollective Philosopher in Soweto Series decolonization. He has taught at the Universities of Sussex and Bristol in the UK. vehicle, she has convened and chaired public lecture events graced international luminaries Prof Charles Mills (USA), Prof Lewis Gordon (USA), Prof Janine Jones (USA), Prof Mogobe Ramose (RSA), and clinical psychologist Dr Umar Johnson (USA). She Stevens, Simon (St John’s College, University of Cambridge) trained in Information System, Project Management and Business Analysis at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. has been appointed as Research Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge University for 2016-20177; In September 2017, he will take up a Lectureship in International History at the University of Sheffield (UK). He completed undergraduate and master’s degrees Passemiers, Lazlo (University of the Free State) at the University of Cambridge, and then a doctorate in History at Columbia University in New York. He is currently a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European is a PhD student at the Centre for Africa studies at the University of the Free State; University Institute in Florence, Italy. His doctoral thesis, defended in October 2015, he has recently submitted his thesis, ‘South Africa and the ‘Congo crisis’, 1960-1965’, was entitled “Boycotts and Sanctions Against South Africa: An International History, which examines South African involvement in and perceptions of the ‘crisis’ during 1946-1970”; forthcoming as a monograph. Stevens has published in Diplomatic History Congo’s First Republic.He has been awarded a three year post-doctoral fellowship at and Humanity (forthcoming, 2016), and contributed chapters to The Breakthrough: the University of the Free State. Human Rights in the 1970s, eds. Samuel Moyn and Jan Eckel, and Comrades of Color: East Germany in the Cold War World, ed. Quinn Slobodian. Radebe, Zandi (UNISA ) is an academic at the Department of Political Sciences at the University of South Africa, Tafira, Hashi Kenneth (Archie Mafeje Research Institute) teaching Political Philosophy at third year level. Research interests include Decoloniali- is a researcher at Archie Mafeje Research Institute, University of South Africa. He holds ty, Black consciousness and Critical Race Theory, Fanonian a doctoral degree in Anthropology from University of the Witwatersrand. Thought, Radical African feminist and Black Feminism; currently enrolled for a PHD program at UNISA focussing on the Negotiated Settlements and the lived experiences Tembe, Joel das Neves (Arquivo Historico de Mocambique) of APLA and AZANLA combatants. holds a PhD in African History from SOAS; Director of National Archives of Mozambique 66 67 and Lecturers at Eduardo Mondlane University. Research inteeres and some publications on Nationalism and liberation struggle in Mozambique and Southern Africa

Torcianti, Chiara (Istoreco) graduated (first level degree, 3 years) in Cultural Anthropology in 2005 with a thesis entitled Bahutu and Batutsi. A historical and anthropological analysis of Rwandan “ethnic groups” at the University of Bologna; earning asecond level degree (2 years) in History of Europe (Contemporary Curriculum) in 2008 with a thesis of History and Institution of Modern and Contemporary Africa entitled Healing local practices and social change in Rwanda between Colonialism and Independence. In 2015, she achieved a post-graduate specialization (Italian “Master”) in Historical Communication with an audio-visual product entitled On the footsteps of Mario and Fermo (at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDtn6XT6Y7w). Currently, she is studying at the School of Archives Management, Palaeography and Diplomacy of State Archives in Modena. Since 2014, she has collaborated with the Historical Institute for the Resistance and the Contemporary Era in Reggio Emilia (ISTORECO). In 2016, she was appointed to handle the Reggio-Africa Archives and the African Collections stored in ISTORECO. Publications: − Healing customary practices and social change in Rwanda between Colonialism and Independence, in Nicolini B., Taddia I. (eds), The Horn of Africa. Medicine, Politics, History, Novalogos (2011); − Busana, 1922-1926. The summer sanatorium for veterans affected by tuberculosis, in RSRicerche Storiche, n.12 (April 2016), p. 9. October 31th, 2016

Vinson, Robert Trent (The College of William and Mary and George Mason University) is Cummings Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of several books and articles, including The Americans are Coming!: The Dream of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2012), Before Mandela, Like A King: The Prophetic Politics of South African Anti-Apartheid leader Chief Albert Luthuli (Athens: Ohio University Press, forthcoming) and, with Benedict Carton, Zulu Diasporas: South Africa, the United States and Black Liberation.

Williams, Christian(University of the Free State) studies Southern Africa’s liberation struggles and their aftermath through the experiences of Namibians who lived in Africa’s frontline states during the struggle years. He completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology and History at the University of Michigan and was a fellow at the University of the Western Cape’s Centre for Humanities Research before moving to the Free State, where he now lectures in the UFS Department of Anthropology. Williams’ monograph, National Liberation in Postcolonial Southern Africa: A Historical Ethnography of SWAPO’s Exile Camps, was published in 2015 with Cambridge University Press.

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